Midterm election fears give way to celebration

Just before this week’s midterm election, I texted a friend, a political journalist. “I’m scared. I don’t want to wake up on Wednesday like it’s 2016.”

“Then sleep in until Thursday,” he quipped. He assured me that Democrats would likely take the House, but not the Senate. Still, I worried, and it seemed many Democrats did, too, even as they made plans to vote and to get others to the polls.

All day Tuesday, I couldn’t stop thinking about the last presidential election. Back then, I’d been in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia, visiting friends. The mood everywhere seemed jubilant. While picking up dinner, we joked about getting a few snacks for stress-eating: chocolate caramels and Swedish fish. You only wisecrack if you think that your candidate will win, if you think the only reason you’ll get sick is from too much candy and booze in an election night celebration.

As the evening wore on, we turned quiet and our fears grew. Finally, I went to bed, telling my friend to wake me up if the tide somehow turned and Hillary Clinton won. Early the next morning, I woke up heavyhearted and in shock, and for the rest of the week, for a long while after, many of us grieved and raged. Many marched in protests and became involved in the political process for the first time, and eventually decided to run for office.

As this week’s election drew closer, those memories resurfaced. The recent violence against African Americans and Jewish worshipers, and the families seeking asylum vilified by the president weighed heavily on my mind. How much longer would these hostilities go on, and how much worse could it get?

“Is Donald Trump winning?” Didi asked as results were starting to come in from across the country on Tuesday. This year, I didn’t have time to take the twins to the polls, as we usually do, but they’ve been asking questions about the yard signs popping up for local candidates.

“He’s not running,” I said. “Though ... actually he is.”

The election served as a referendum not only on President Trump, but on ourselves: Was this country as hateful and racist as he made it out to be, or would voters elect another possibility?

It turned out to be a joyous night of firsts: New York’s Alexandria OcasioCortez became the youngest woman elected to Congress. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American daughter of immigrants in Michigan, and Ilhan Omar, a Somali American refugee in Minnesota, are the first Muslim women elected to Congress; Ayanna Pressley will be the first black member of Congress from Massachusetts; Kansas’ Sharice Davids, a lesbian and a member of the Ho-Chunk nation, and New Mexico’s Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, became the first American Indian women who will serve in Congress.

While getting my sons down for bedtime, I surreptitiously checked the news feed on my phone, and celebrated each victory. Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia became the first Latinas from Texas to be elected to Congress. Colorado’s Jared Polis will be the first openly gay governor in the country, and Chris Pappas will be New Hampshire’s first openly gay congressman.

With the passage of Amendment 4, Florida restored voting rights to 1.4 million people with past felony convictions — who had been denied a chance to go to the polls even after completing their sentences — repealing Jim Crow-era laws. The narrow defeat of Beto O’Rourke in Texas for the U.S. Senate disheartened me, but his star remains on the rise. And I’m holding out hope for a runoff in the gubernatorial election of Stacey Abrams in Georgia and a possible recount for Andrew Gillum in Florida. Both were subjected to racist attacks during the campaign. Trump-backed, anti-immigrant candidates who lost include Kansas gubernatorial candidate and Secretary of State Kris Kobach, and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa (Orange County), who was running for re-election.

May the House Democrats now serve as a check against the president and his administration, which has undermined environmental protections, demonized immigrants and stirred up white supremacists. May House committees open multiple investigations into Trump; there are already plans to request his tax returns. May our elected officials address the allegations of voter suppression in North Dakota, Georgia and elsewhere. And may the momentum continue through to 2020 and beyond.

“The more Americans vote, the more our elected leaders look like America . ... The change we need won’t come from one election alone — but it is a start,” former President Barack Obama tweeted on Wednesday morning. “I’m hopeful that going forward, we’ll begin a return to the values we expect in our public life — honesty, decency, compromise, and standing up for one another as Americans, not separated by our differences but bound together by one common creed.”

The election served as a referendum not only on President Trump, but on ourselves. Vanessa Hua is a Bay Area author. Her columns appear Fridays in Datebook. Email: datebook@sfchronicle.com