For many of us, the aftermath of Election Day 2017 is a much happier day than the day after Election Day 2016. For the first time in a year, there are an abundance of progressive developments and breakthroughs, like criminal justice reform advocate Larry Krasner becoming district attorney of Philadelphia; Hoboken, New Jersey, electing Sikh mayor Ravi Bhalla; and new Virginia delegate Danica Roem, the transgender candidate (and metal band vocalist) who defeated longtime incumbent Bob Marshall, author of that state’s notorious anti-transgender bathroom bill.
While Democrats also had many victories at the granular local level, two of their largest wins were in races for governor. Phil Murphy ended eight years of Republic reign in New Jersey by defeating Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno, and Trump-backed (then Trump-discarded) candidate Ed Gillespie lost handily to Democrat Ralph Northam, who received more votes than any previous Virginia governor.
Gillespie not only immediately got trounced by Trump for losing because he apparently didn’t love Trump enough, but suffered an additional indignity. New York magazine noticed that someone (himself? a staffer, more likely?) had changed Gillespie’s birthday to election day on his Twitter page, so when you visited it yesterday, you were greeted with a flood of painful, ironic, celebratory balloons:
They’re down now.