My son and I woke up at 5 o’clock this morning, hit Dunkin’, and delivered donuts to poll workers all across our neighborhood. It was a simple, humble way to kick off an Election Day where, to be perfectly honest, my nerves have been getting to me.
I’m nervous about what’s going to happen today. I’ve heard a few folks toss around the term “nauseously optimistic,” and I can’t think of a better way to put it. The polls look good. The fundamentals look good. Our candidates are crushing it, our fundraising is up, and Fox News’ ratings are down. It seems like Democrats are on the verge of a potentially historic midterm victory, thanks to Donald Trump’s destruction of this country. And yet my stomach is in knots, because we know better than to take anything for granted.
I don’t know what’s going to happen today, and I won’t pretend I do. There are going to be a lot of people giving you crap analysis of early vote numbers and today’s turnout. Ignore them. My advice: keep your head down, do the work, go be with your family, keep your mental health in order, and be prepared for whatever comes next.
Because tonight, we will know. We’ll know about the House, the Senate, the governor’s races, and the state houses. By tomorrow morning, we’ll most likely know the state of our union, and then we’ll go from there, step by step.
Today’s rant is sponsored by Ground News.
And as the midterms wrap up, the flood of headlines, competing narratives, and political noise is only beginning. That's why I'll be using Ground News to cut through it all, to compare how the results are being covered, and get a clearer picture of what's actually happening.
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The Independent says If Republicans lose their majorities, Trump said he expects to issue vetoes for "a month or two" before negotiating agreements with opposition leaders.
New York Post states The president also agreed with Elon Musk’s recent warning that if Democrats sweep the elections on Tuesday, the country will be “maybe forever destroyed.”
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And if Donald Trump decides not to accept the results of this election, if they decide to cheat and steal (and I’m sure they’re going to pull some shady shit today), we will fight back, and we will be prepared. As I told a lot of the election workers I met this morning: reach out to me if you need something, because I’m ready to get out there and fight. If ICE shows up at a polling location today, I’m going to be there, along with a lot of the other people who help organize my neighborhood. If a machine goes down (and I helped a guy fix one earlier this morning), we’re going to be there bugging the county until it gets fixed.
That’s what this looks like on the ground. It’s not glamorous. It’s donuts, broken machines, and making sure people know who to call if something goes sideways. But that’s the work.
We’re going to do this together, okay? Democracy takes a village, guys. A country takes a village. We’ve been holding each other together for so long, and that’s exactly why I’m so grateful for this community.
Over this past year, this community, from Substack to YouTube to Threads and everywhere in between, has become something I value more than you could ever know. I hope I’ve been helpful to you, because I know you’ve been helpful to me. I might not be able to respond to every one of your comments, but I read most of them. I internalize them, and I use them to adjust, edit, and understand.
I’ve started paying more attention to how the same story can feel completely different depending on who’s reporting it. Ground News makes that easy to see by showing coverage from across the political spectrum and pointing out what certain outlets leave out.
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The conversation we’re building together is key to taking our country back and building a better Democratic Party, one that can deliver for working people and fix what’s broken in this country. And every time I’m out there doing cool shit, like roasting some conservative asshole on CNN, I get to do that because of you. I hope you know that.
So to everyone out there lifting up our democracy today, thank you. That means the poll workers doing thankless jobs, the campaign staff and volunteers knocking on doors, the folks who chipped in small-dollar contributions, and everyone who gave a little bit of themselves to whatever happens tonight. You’re not just helping win elections. You’re making sure our democracy survives and functions at a time when so many forces want to tear it down.
Whatever happens tonight, win, lose, or draw, you own a piece of it. Because when push came to shove, when Donald Trump and his MAGA movement came back into power, you said enough was enough. You didn’t quit, and you didn’t give up. You owned your part in this, and you were part of the solution in ways big and small, some we see and some we don’t. A million acts of resistance. And you were one of those million acts more than a few times.
Thank you for everything you’ve done. Now go do the work. I’ll talk to you soon.
With urgency,
—Mike
What a nice gesture, donuts and support. And a great lesson for your son to see what civic duty can include. Hang in there Mike, we are all nauseously optimistic. And Hopeful
I don't think I have felt this type of confusing combination of nervous excitement and fear (with a sprinkle of terror), since the day I gave birth to my first child!