America Pushed Back
Last night I sat in my home, glued to my television like so many people, not just in the United States but around the world, holding on to hope. It’s an old line we’ve heard many times across political lines: change. After a few hours of sleep, I woke up to the news that the American people have spoken. Change is needed, but with a clear message: bring America back to working together, Republicans and Democrats, with bipartisan leadership, and hold the three branches of government to their job of checks and balances. This is and always has been America’s strength. We became a great nation through our diversity.
No one will say it was always an easy road to travel. But Make America Great Again has to change to Make America Better, which should always have been our marching orders. One says some will be left out, and the other says inclusion for all.
It has been an extraordinary night with great achievements. We have a litany of firsts in this election: two states electing their first Latino governors, the first Black woman governor of any state, and the first Muslim senator. But many have ignored that Nevada, Wisconsin and Florida each got their first Black governor too. I woke up and told my Dominican wife, “Look at this.” This election has made the world see America push back on division and push forward to the America that so many Americans fought and died for. Look at what we have done, what my father, who has passed, never saw and only dreamed of seeing.
Before Tuesday, this country had only ever elected three Black governors, and never two serving at the same time. Come January, we’ll have five at once. That’s 10% of our governors, and Black Americans are 13.5% of this country. Women, 17 governors, the most ever. That’s a third of the states. Deb Haaland in New Mexico, the first Native American woman governor. And Peggy Flanagan, Ojibwe from the White Earth Nation, was already Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, and now she’s the first Native American woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate.
My wife, who is Latina, and I talked about this. People don’t understand that these aren’t the first Latino politicians in this country. But what happened is amazing. Texas and California used to be part of Mexico. Mexicans and Latinos were there before they were ever American states. And it took until 2026 for a Latina, Gina Hinojosa in Texas, and a Latino, Xavier Becerra in California, to be elected governor in the two states that have always been Latino strongholds. I don’t think anybody sees how amazing that is.
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Great things happened in the Texas election, and we should be proud of that. But we also lost Black congressmen in that election, from five down to two. That still shows some division. But the road we’re traveling on is a good road, and we need to keep going down it. Today we lost Black politicians in Texas. Maybe tomorrow, maybe on the horizon, we return them.
When I look at that, I also look at Florida. I’m not a Republican, and I’m technically not a Democrat either. I lean independent, but I vote Democrat. And my hat’s off, and my applause, to Byron Donalds, the first Black governor of Florida, who is a Republican. He and I would probably never agree on many things. But I can still see the good in his election, in his party recognizing him for who he is instead of his color, and I can feel pride in that.
And look at Wisconsin. A state where more than three out of four people are white elected David Crowley, its first Black governor. So this is happening on both sides of the aisle. We’re not there yet. But we’re closer to that dream, the one spoken of in the famous “I Have a Dream” speech, of being judged by our character and not the color of our skin.
Now look at Congress. Women hold about a quarter of the seats. Black Americans hold about 11% of the seats, and in the Senate we’ll have six Black senators, the most this country has ever seen. Muslim Americans, seven of them going to Congress. They’re about 1% of this country, and now they’re 1.3% of Congress. For the first time, they have a seat at the table. And Hakeem Jeffries is set to become the first Black American Speaker of the House, second in line to the presidency. But we still have work to do. Latinos are 20.5% of this country but hold under 10% of Congress.
America is starting to become the dream we fought for so long. We haven’t arrived completely yet, and we have more fights ahead of us. But we’re starting to see the America that my father, his father, and many fathers before them, of all different backgrounds and races, fought for. This came out of the division that was pushed on us, and America pushed back.
But here’s the thing. Democrats and Republicans, both parties, don’t take this election like the American people were only speaking to the Republicans. No. The message was to Congress as a whole. Americans are tired of division. People want responsible politics back. They don’t want tribal politics. You have to reach across the aisle and come up with bipartisan bills, because not only Democrats live in America. Not only Republicans, not only independents. This is the most multicultural, multi-religious country on the planet, and it was made that way for a reason.
And look at the young people. Almost half the adults in this country, about 46%, are between 18 and 44. We older folks, myself included, have to remember the country we’re leaving behind is not ours. It’s theirs. They’re the ones who are going to be here living in it. So they need to be included, and their ideas need to be included. This world belongs to them, and to the generations after us, not us.
