Election 2024: Today (or This Week) and the Day After

As we close in on the first returns, I’ve tried to figure out what I want to say about this election. After long thought, it probably boils down to three things:

1: Please Vote: As the son of immigrants who came from a country that did not always know a free vote, please do not take it for granted here. Too many before us toiled, marched, bled and died for that right for any of us not to exercise it now. This country is incomplete without your voice and we need it now.  

2: Kamala Harris for President: I proudly voted for Kamala Harris for President weeks ago by mail and the choice to me was very clear and I imagine was not a surprise to no one who knows me.  From seeing her leadership in keeping America at the cutting edge of the industries of the future like space from my vantage point on the National Space Council to seeing her treat with foreign leaders abroad like Pres. Zelenskyy of Ukraine to seeing her lead a task force with my former boss US Labor Sec. Marty Walsh on how to empower American workers, I have been able to see from a closer seat than most the compassionate, courageous and far-sighted leader that she is and will be for our country.  Her election will make history in so many ways but what made me vote for her is the future that I believe she will ensure for my children and yours.  Much has been said about her opponent that I will not repeat, all I will say about him is this: he has shown himself too selfish to focus on our future over himself, too small to embrace the big vision of America that includes all of us, and too unable and unwilling to shoulder the immense and imperfectly borne burden of world leadership that in uniquely American.  

I also want to highlight some other history makers that I am so proud to support and and/or call friends like Angela Alsobrooks my home County Executive that Maryland will hopefully send to the US Senate tonight and also my good friend Tony Vargas who will hopefully win the 2nd US House District in Nebraska tonight.  @angelaalsobrooks @tony

3: The Day After- When the election results are fully counted, one thing for sure will be true. Each one of us will live in a country where tens of millions of our fellow Americans voted for the opposing side to our own.  The temptation to let that difference in party widen the already deep civic gap between us and our neighbors is great. It is hard for me or any of us to resist.  But as I sit here waiting for these results, I remind myself that I consider myself a patriot. If one looks up that word, it means love of country which in this case is America.  You cannot love your country only when you win and you cannot love your country without loving everyone in it. Those tens of millions of Americans who voted an opposite way from me or from you were Americans before this election and will be so after.  If we forget that fact after all is said and done, then we all lose no matter who each of us individually voted for.  I believe that the people can be better than our politics and I believe that we as Americans can show our leaders through the eloquence of our everyday examples that America can be a country for all.  The world, our communities and many who have yet to be born need America to be that country.  

Happy Election Day all and God Bless America.