Dreams of a blue Texas don’t come true
But one thing is clear: Lone Star State is no longer a foregone conclusion for the GOP.
Democrats’ dreams of a blue Texas were not to be. That seemed clear in the election results late Tuesday but so was something else: Texas is no longer a foregone conclusion for the GOP.
From the state House to the U.S. Senate, Democrats put up strong, well-funded fights. Even the presidential race produced a closer contest than we’ve seen in many years.
Results were still trickling in at deadline but the epic race between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden was the nail-biter many predicted, even if Trump fared better than polls predicted in many states and Republicans in the U.S. Senate, including Texas’ John Cornyn to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina kept their seats.
Americans will have to be patient as the uncertainty persists into Wednesday and possibly longer.
But it’s not too early to celebrate another victory: an American election that worked, again.
The juxtaposition between what many speculated would happen on Election Day was a stark contrast to what actually did. A flyer in Austin warned Black Americans to go straight home after voting and remove political signs from their yards to avoid any post-election violence as results rolled in.
Meanwhile, in Houston, a threeman jazz band played on at an Election Day polling location at Texas Southern University, the bongos and congas upbeat, the bassist’s fingers fretless on his fretboard to Janet Jackson’s “That’s theWay Love Goes.”
In 2020, that’s the way democracy goes. As anxiety and fear crescendo, hope drops the beat. For all the ugly threats, intimidating robocalls, warnings of civil unrest and litigious assaults on voter rights by Texas GOP activists — including one that succeeded in closing ballot drop-off locations and one that failed to invalidate 127,000 drivethru ballots in Harris County — one of the most divisive elections in U.S. history played on.
Voters overcame obstacles, confu
sion and pandemic worries to have their say – some amid heated altercations and catcalling as reported at Houston’sWest Gray Multi-Service Center and some in moments of unexpected, soul-swelling joy.
There were tacos, horchata and coffee for voters and songs by Mariachi Imperial at an East End polling place. A cowboy procession accompanying Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins in a horse-drawn carriage in Acres Homes. A pop-up drag show in Montrose, where singers lip-synced to Dolly Parton.
We don’t yet know if Election Day will usher in a new day for America but it certainly wasn’t the doomsday some tried to provoke.
The uplifting displays were reminders that voting is an act of faith, rooted in the belief that one person’s voice can make things better — and that many voices determine our destiny.
At a time of deep division, when even the decision to wear a mask during a global pandemic has turned into a partisan emblem, ordinary Texans were at least united in their trust in the vote — especially the early kind.
Before the polls opened on Election Day, almost 10 million Texas voters had already cast ballots in person or voted by mail, easily surpassing the voting total for 2016. Harris County broke its all-time voter turnout by Thursday, en route to what is expected to be a record 1.6 million votes cast this election.
In Congress, Democrats maintained control of the U.S. House and Cornyn will return toWashington for a fourth term, besting a formidable challenge from decorated Air Force veteran MJ Hegar.
The 2020 presidential contest, conducted less than a year after the incumbent was impeached and with voters more polarized than at any time since the CivilWar, was historic before the first ballots were cast.
If Trump is re-elected, he would be the first president to gain a second term after facing impeachment charges and the only one, if polling is correct, to do so without ever winning the popular vote.
If Trump loses, he would be only the 11th president in U.S. history rejected by voters for re-election and the first since George H.W. Bush was denied a second term by Bill Clinton in 1992.
No matter who sits in the Oval Office, there will be much to repair. Divisions in the country are deep; some may be irreparable, even within families. But the next president must take on the mission of bringing the country together.
The blatant efforts to suppress legally cast votes during this election, including Trump’s repeated and much debunked claims of election fraud, will not be easily forgotten. Nor should they be.
Such malicious maneuvers tear at the fabric of our democracy.
The country is shaken by the worst pandemic in 100 years that has already claimed 232,000 lives in the U.S., with health experts warning of a dark winter as cases surge around the country, and a stillthrobbing movement of racial reckoning sparked by the death of George Floyd — crises made worse by a president intent on ignoring both.
As we await the final results, let us take a minute to celebrate all that was accomplished. Every voter who cast a ballot that was fairly counted is proof that the American experiment is still alive and kicking. Maybe even dancing.