6 reasons to be hopeful about the 2024 election

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Election Day is officially behind us and the American people have made their choice. With a stunning victory, former President Donald Trump will return to the White House, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris.

For the second time in eight years, hopes for the country's first female president have been dashed. But while there are many reasons to feel anger and despair this morning, Tuesday night's news wasn't all bad.

The popular Delaware state senator won the state's only congressional district in a historic election that will make her the first transgender representative in Congress. She defeated Republican John Whalen III with 57.6% of the vote. Earlier this year, McBride told the Cut, “I'm not running to make history, I'm running to make a difference.”

Do you remember this guy? The Republican lieutenant governor who apparently commented on porn sites and called himself a “black Nazi”? Well, he lost! Instead, Democrat Josh Stein will become the next governor of North Carolina, keeping the office blue for another four years.

While an upset result in Florida means abortion rights will not be added to the state constitution, there have been some positive results. In New York, Proposition 1—an amendment to the state constitution that broadly expanded civil rights protections—passed easily. The new amendment states that no one may be discriminated against on the basis of, among other things, “gender, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcome, and reproductive health care and autonomy.”

In Maryland, voters overwhelmingly voted to add an article to the state constitution that would enshrine the right to reproductive freedom, which includes “the ability to make and implement decisions to prevent, continue, or terminate one's pregnancy.” .

The same thing happened in Colorado, where people voted YES on Amendment 79, which will enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. Missouri also passed its own abortion-related amendment, codifying the right to “reproductive freedom” and making it the first state to repeal a near-total ban on abortion.

Yes, somehow there have never been two black women in the Senate at the same time. This is finally remedied by the victories of Angela Alsobrooks in Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester in Delaware.

Over in the Bluegrass State, Amendment 2 would have allowed the General Assembly to appropriate public funding for non-public schools. The amendment was rejected by teachers, parents and much of the voting public. The amendment was defeated as 65 percent of voters voted NO. “People are coming together to send a strong message that we believe in the promise of public education, and we will not stand by and watch that promise be undermined,” Kelsey Coots of Protect Our Schools Kentucky told Lexington Herald Leader.

Monique Worrell was forced out of her job as a prosecutor by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last year. The Democrat clashed with the governor over reform policies, which included reducing incarceration for minor crimes, and was replaced by conservative Andrew Bain. She regained her position on Tuesday evening.

This post has been updated.