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7:32 PM · 3 Nov 2020
538 politics@538politics
Our projections had Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin all at a 70% or higher chance of going blue, but latest returns have them too close to call. Yeah, we’re confused too.
8:04 PM · 3 Nov 2020
The New York Times@nytimes
#Election2020 latest: a bruising round of calls for Pres. Claremont brings the electoral tally up to 178 for Sen. Richards. Claremont lags behind at 113.
9:15 PM · 3 Nov 2020
They’ve partitioned off the smaller exhibit hall for VIPs only—campaign staff, friends and family, congresspeople. On the other side of the event center is the crowd of supporters with their signs, theirCLAREMONT2020 andHISTORY,HUH?T-shirts, overflowing under the architectural canopies and into the surrounding hills. It’s supposed to be a party.
Alex has been trying not to stress. He knows how presidential elections go. When he was a kid, this was his Super Bowl. He used to sit in front of the living room TV and color each state in with red and blue magic markers as the night went on, allowed to stay up hours past his bedtime for one blessed night at age ten to watch Obama beat McCain. He watches his dad’s jaw in profile now, trying to remember the triumph in the set of it that night.
There was a magic, then. Now, it’s personal.
And they’re losing.
The sight of Leo coming in through a side door isn’t entirely unexpected, and June rises from her chair and meets them both in a quiet corner of the room on the same instinct. He’s holding his phone in one hand.
“Your mother wants to talk to you,” Leo says, and Alex automatically reaches out until Leo holds out a hand to stop him. “No, sorry, Alex, not you. June.”
June blinks. “Oh.” She steps forward, pushes her hair away from her ear. “Mom?”
“June,” says the sound of their mother’s voice over the little speaker. On the other end, she’s in one of the arena’s meeting rooms, a makeshift office with her core team. “Baby. I need you to, uh. I need you to come in here.”
“Okay, Mom,” she says, her voice measured and calm. “What’s going on?”
“I just. I need you to help me rewrite this speech for, uh.” There’s a considerable pause. “Well. Just in case of concession.”
June’s face goes utterly blank for a second, and suddenly, vividlyfurious.
“No,” she says, and she grabs Leo by the forearm so she can talk directly into the speaker. “No,I’m not gonna do that, because you’re not gonna lose. Do you hear me? You’re not losing. We’re gonna fucking do this for four more years,all of us.I am not writing you agoddamn concession speech,ever.”
There’s another pause across the line, and Alex can picture their mother in her little makeshift Situation Room upstairs, glasses on, high heels still in the suitcase, staring at the screens, hoping and trying and praying. President Mom.
“Okay,” she says evenly. “Okay. Alex. Do you think you could get up and say something for the crowd?”
“Yeah, yeah, sure, Mom,” he says. He clears his throat, and it comes out as strong as hers the second time. “Of course.”
A third pause, then. “God, I love you both so much.”
Leo leaves, and he’s quickly replaced by Zahra, whose sleek red dress and ever-present coffee thermos are the biggest comfort Alex has seen all night. Her ring flashes at him, and he thinks of Shaan and wishes desperately Henry washerealready.
“Fix your face,” she says, straightening his collar as she shepherds him and June through to the main exhibit hall and into the back of the stage area. “Big smiles, high energy, confidence.”
He turns helplessly to June. “What do I say?”
“Little bit, ain’t no time for me to write you anything,” she tells him. “You’re a leader. Go lead. You got this.”
Oh God.
Confidence.He looks down at the cuffs of his jacket again, the red, white, and blue.Be Alex,Nora said when she handed it to him.Be Alex.
Alex is—two words that told a few million kids across America they weren’t alone. A letterman jacket in APUSH. Secretloose panels in White House windows. Ruining something because you wanted it too badly and still getting back up and trying again. Not a prince. Something bigger, maybe.
