I Sat Down on Election Night and Cried.

After years of fighting for accountability, Tuesday felt personal. Thank you for showing up.

I sat down Tuesday night while the returns were still coming in, and I cried.

I thought, I did it. Then I corrected myself. No. We did it. We did it as a country.

America didn’t fail a f”ing open-book test.

I’m so proud of the people who showed up. I was overwhelmed watching those results, and I’m getting choked up talking about it now. After everything we’ve been through, it felt good to see the country reject the MAGA agenda and a government that keeps failing the people it’s supposed to serve.

Y’all, we deserve nice things.

Since January 7th, I’ve been fighting for accountability for what happened to me and my coworkers at the Capitol. I’ve taken loss after loss. I’m not going to go through all of them again here. You know.

But Tuesday night was the closest I’ve felt to vindication since January 6th.

I went to Arizona to campaign against Andy Biggs. I went to Wisconsin to speak out against Tom Tiffany and the election lies. I wanted people to understand why those races were personal to me, why I hold the people who spread that lie responsible for helping create what happened at the Capitol.

Biggs lost. Tiffany lost. Katie Hobbs is going back to the governor’s office in Arizona. David Crowley is going to be Wisconsin’s next governor. Congratulations, Governor.

And Derrick Van Orden lost his seat to Rebecca Cooke.

To the people who kept pushing the big lie: I’m pushing a big middle finger right back. I’m glad you lost.

Thank you to the voters who made that happen. I got to do my part, but you all went out and voted. That’s why we get to have this moment.

Watching Michigan was beautiful too. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is going to the United States Senate. I adore that man. He ran on making life better for everyday people, and I love seeing a Muslim man win that kind of trust.

We can want a better life for everybody. Your faith, your ethnicity, your sexuality shouldn’t decide whether your government cares about you. Abdul believes that. Watching him win meant something to me.

And my friend Jocelyn Benson is going to be Michigan’s next governor. There are so many people I want to congratulate that I’m not even going to try to name them all.

I do want Democrats to spend some time understanding why we won.

Are people tired of Donald Trump? Are they tired of everything costing too much? Do they believe we have ideas that will make their lives better? Are they sick of the corruption?

I think it’s all of the above. And we have a responsibility to deliver on what we promised. People need to afford groceries and pay their bills. We have to show them that voting for us makes a difference in their lives if we want to maintain this coalition and expand it.

There’s a part of me that keeps thinking it didn’t have to get this bad. We could have been spending this election expanding Kamala Harris’s majority. Instead, we had to fight our way back from what happened in 2024.

We do this in our own lives too. We put off going to the doctor until something’s wrong. We wait for the car to start making a funny noise before we take it to the shop. I wish we didn’t have to wait until everything was f’d up before we decided to change it.

But let me not be Debbie Downer. I’m proud of this country. I want us to enjoy what happened Tuesday. I’ve needed a night like that for a long time.

I also know a lot of you want to talk about what accountability looks like now. So do I.

I had the opportunity to ask Governor JB Pritzker, how do we get accountability, when so many Americans rejected it when they elected Donald president again? He said, we need to look at what this administration is doing right now and bring to light the crimes they are committing now.

I’ve spent years seeking accountability for January 6th. I want it. I’m never going to tell the people who want it that they don’t matter. But Congress also has a job to investigate what’s happening today. Follow the money. Get the records. Bring people in to testify and make the evidence public.

Jamie Raskin is poised to take the Judiciary Committee gavel when the new Congress begins in January. I can’t wait to see what he does with it. I’m going to be paying attention.

Where investigations uncover evidence of crimes, Congress can make criminal referrals. That doesn’t mean Todd Blanche will act on them. I don’t expect the man who was Donald Trump’s personal attorney to suddenly start holding him and his allies accountable.

Congress still needs to investigate. The American people deserve to know what their government has been doing, and the evidence needs to be gathered whether this Justice Department wants to act on it or not.

I’m not willing to treat this Justice Department’s refusal to act as the last word. Gather the evidence now. Make the referrals where the evidence supports them. A future Justice Department should be able to look at that evidence and make decisions based on the law, whoever is involved. I can’t promise you when we’ll get justice. I want us to do the work that gives us a chance to get it.

And yes, holding people accountable includes the Democrats we just elected.

I’m not sold on Chuck Schumer continuing as leader. The way he handled the shutdown fights and the fight over ACA subsidies disappointed me. I want leadership that will fight for the people who sent us here.

With Hakeem Jeffries, I’m cautiously optimistic. He deserves credit for keeping a party with a lot of different ideas together. That’s hard. I look at the divisions in the Republican caucus and I appreciate that our leadership has been able to get people on the same page.

But I’m going to judge the next Congress by the votes it takes and what it delivers. I want votes on Medicare for All and a livable wage. I want food assistance protected. I want Congress to work to end the war in Iran and stop military aid to Israel. Those are issues the progressive movement ran on and was widely supported by the voters.

And I don’t like that Jeffries takes AIPAC money. That bothers me. I want him working to get big money out of politics and fighting to overturn Citizens United. People who showed up Tuesday deserve to see their priorities taken seriously.

Those conversations have to happen now, while members are deciding who will lead them. What are you going to fight for? What are you going to bring to a vote? I want us holding our own leaders’ feet to the fire too.

We need turnout like Tuesday’s in every election. I don’t want us waiting until everything is terrible before we show up again.

I’m going to enjoy this win. God, it feels good. And I’m going to be watching what the people we elected do with it.

Harry