After spending the majority of Election Day locked deep inside the White House, and away from the public view, at 10:37 p.m., Donald Trump started lashing out at the country that had just delivered a devastating rejection of him and his MAGA agenda. “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP”
An hour later, he was still melting down, facing the reality of just how devastating the results of the night really were, when he posted an image of a red hat with one word written across it in bright white capital letters: “VETO.” The president of the United States was desperately trying to remind the country of the power he still holds, after the overwhelming rejection he had just received from the American people.
His slogan went from “Make America Great Again” to “VETO” in a single night because the president, who believed he was all-powerful and invincible, was finally forced to confront the reality of what his presidency had been reduced to.
Tonight, the American people voted to flip both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate from Republican to Democratic control. Even before the full results were in, he was already attacking Fox News host Jessica Tarlov, calling her “DUMB AS A ROCK” and complaining that her voice bothered him so much he had to leave the room. In a separate post on his social media platform, Truth Social, he called Fox News polls “BULLSHIT.” His meltdown only got more embarrassing from there when he accused the network of funding Democrats, while his party lost control of the country’s legislature.
But this moment does not belong to Donald Trump or his circle of enablers. Tonight belongs to us. It belongs to every single one of us who never gave up on our country or each other. It belongs to our Black and brown communities who showed up in a way that may have saved this country. Black voters alone cast more than 160,000 additional early ballots compared to the same point in the 2022 midterm cycle, turnout so high that one Republican strategist told Politico, “I’ve never seen anything like this. We’re looking at the potential of presidential-level Black turnout.” In a midterm. Hispanic voter turnout was equally remarkable, and in the words of one election researcher, “through the roof.”
These communities saw what was happening under this administration and said enough is enough. They saw the ICE raids, the stripping of civil rights, the open racism from the White House, and the redistricting that was done to try to silence their voices. They saw all of it, and they responded the way they have always responded when this country has been in danger. They organized, brought their neighbors, stood in line, and made sure their votes and voices were heard. They did what they have done at every critical turning point in American history: they carried the weight of democracy on their backs when they were needed most.
This is by no means the end of the assault on our country. We won tonight, and we have every reason to celebrate what the American people have accomplished, but we cannot allow ourselves to believe for even a moment that the danger has passed. Because it hasn’t. Donald Trump and the people who have enabled him are still in power until January, and then we still have two more years of his presidency ahead of us as well. That is two more years of fighting to protect our rights, democracy, and the people whose lives have already been devastated by what this administration has done. We have seen what they are willing to do when nobody stands in their way, and there is no doubt that they are going to fight even harder now that the American people have started taking that power away from them.
What lies ahead of us are increasing attacks on the media, lawsuits, and lies the likes of which we have never seen before. Donald Trump has never been willing to accept defeat, and there is no reason to believe for even one second that he is going to suddenly start respecting the will of the American people now. But at the same time, we need to recognize the magnitude of what happened tonight. Two years ago, we were terrified about what was coming; we saw Donald Trump for who he was, and we made the decision that we were not going to sit back and watch our country be destroyed without doing everything within our power to stop it.
We didn’t know if we could make a difference. We didn’t know how bad things were going to get or how much we would lose along the way. But what we did know was that silence is always more expensive than any price they could make us pay for speaking out, and we knew that we would never give up. Now tonight, after everything we have been through, after all the exhaustion, anger, and the heartbreak of watching what has happened to our country and to people around the world because of Donald Trump’s destruction, our resistance has finally brought us to the moment that we have been fighting for. We have proof that the American people can still stand up to this administration and take back power through our votes. Tonight we celebrate, and tomorrow we pick back up where we left off and begin the next chapter of our resistance.
Tonight, the American people held the line and sent a message to those trying to destroy our country and turn it into an authoritarian state that they will never win. We will never let them take our country away from us. But we didn’t stand alone.
We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to those of you outside the United States who never gave up on us. Who held us up when we were struggling to stand, who continued to believe in us when we were losing faith in our own country, who carried the American dream for us when we could no longer carry it ourselves, and who reminded us of who we were when we grew weary under the weight of watching everything we believed our country stood for being torn apart before our eyes. To those around the world who still stood with those of us fighting for the survival of our democracy, and for humanity itself, I cannot thank you enough for holding the light as we fight our way back to the right side of history. The America you once knew, which was never perfect, but was always trying to be better, the America that stood beside its allies, that believed in human rights and democracy, and that understood we have a responsibility to people beyond our own borders, is still here. We have been subjected to a takeover of our government, and that takeover is by no means over, but neither is our fight to take our country back.
Tonight, we are finally seeing proof that better days are ahead. Not just for us here in America, but for all of us in every corner of the world. The real Americans are still here, and we have not abandoned our allies. We are going to fight every single day, for as long as it takes, to find our way back to you, to earn back your trust, and to make the necessary changes to our country and our government to make sure this never happens again.
Donald Trump asked us to pretend he was on the ballot, and we did. Now Democrats will control both the House and the Senate. He wanted the election to be about him, and he got his wish. We voted against him, against everything he stands for, and against everything he has done to our country. Thanks to him, it is finally time for consequences and accountability. They are coming not just for Donald Trump, but for his entire cabinet, Elon Musk, and every single person who enabled this assault on our country.
Tonight, we felt something we haven’t felt in a very long time: a sense of victory. Not relief, because we are nowhere near the end of this. But in this moment, we have every reason to celebrate nonetheless. We also proved to ourselves and everyone around the world that our resistance is working. The protesting, organizing, donating, and refusing to give up mattered. Thank you to every single person who showed up and voted today. Thank you to everyone who refused to look away and who never gave up. The tide has turned. We are not done yet. This is just the beginning. We still have a fight ahead of us, but we now know that we are more powerful than he ever wanted us to believe, especially when we stand together. That is why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.
I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather
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This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.
Picture of the day: I forgot to take a separate picture of my “I voted” sticker, but I was able to take a screenshot of me wearing it in today’s video. What a truly extraordinary day today was. I am holding tight to my joy because I know things will get a lot darker before we are totally out of the woods, but it feels good to know that come January, as long as Donald Trump doesn’t pull any dirty tricks, we will finally be able to mitigate at least some of his worst abuses of power. I’ll have more thoughts tomorrow, but I’m going to watch the results for a bit longer tonight and then try to get some rest. It was a long day, but it was also a very good one.
Links to sources used in writing this article:
https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/calendar/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-control-democrats-republicans-2026-midterm-elections/
https://thegrio.com/2026/11/02/black-voters-fighting-redistricting-midterms/
https://www.axios.com/2026/10/29/midterm-early-voting-trump-unaffiliated-voters
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Your voice, with its research-based clarity and consistency, has helped us get to this point! Thank you!!!