Worst Election Ever… now what do we do?

Beloved MVP friends,

I am still in shock too. 

I just reassured my crying children that everything is going to be OK. They don’t believe me. We just got our asses kicked last night. And now we’re about to enter the worst Presidency of our lifetimes. 

I’m going to share some raw reflections below, but here is what we know for certain: Trump will try to move us backwards. We will do everything in our power to stop him. 

Our #1 job now is to defend our communities, block Trump, win state-level progress, and build power to win Congress in 2026 and take back the Presidency in 2028. This work starts today.

If you’re like us and you’re looking for how to channel your grief and shock on this difficult day, here are two constructive ways:

1. Join our emergency briefing today on Zoom to assess what we know, what we don’t know yet, and where we go from here.
2. Support our amazing local partners to build the biggest movement ever to block the Trump agenda, defend and build the power of at-risk communities, and come back stronger than ever in 2026 and 2028.

OK – so here are some things I am saying to comfort myself and others around me:

We have what it takes to meet this moment. We will strategize. We will adapt. Our elders and our ancestors have endured unthinkably difficult circumstances. We will draw on their strength and wisdom as we chart our course forward. 

We will mount the largest resistance in history. We have resisted before. We did an excellent job of resisting in 2017 and we turned our determination into a mighty Blue Wave from 2017-2023. We can and will do that again. For the sake of everyone and everything we love. Maybe even better.

We will rebuild our political power. The 2026 midterm elections are coming. The midterm electorate under Trump was favorable in 2018 and we have a chance to rebuild our power and deliver a major rebuke. 

He will overplay his hand. He will do lots of stupid and horrible things that mobilize our base and make people regret voting for him.

We have a lot to reflect on, and improve. This is the toughest situation ever. We need to be the best strategists, leaders, and friends we can be. We are enough. 

We did everything we could. Maybe not every single thing. But collectively we did an incredible job. We were up against strong head winds. We will celebrate all we did and accomplished together. We have a lot to be proud of despite our loss. 

Where do we go from here?

A few thoughts – and we would love to hear yours!

(you can reply directly to this email – we will read it – or on social media)

Be kind to yourself and comfort those around you. We are all feeling so many things: shocked, numb, heartsick, scared, angry, grieving. I haven’t even let myself feel my feelings yet. Many people around us may be even more scared, depressed, or worse. Please, whatever you do, be kind to yourselves and those around you in this time. Hug your loved ones tight. Check on your friends. Say out loud things you are grateful for every day. Do intentional things to take care of yourself and your loved ones. 

Reflection, not blame. Were there things that folks on our side could have done better and differently? Yes. But we are all in the same boat now. So let’s cultivate space for constructive reflection, learning, and strategy. There is always an impulse to blame someone. As cited above, the main reasons we lost are factors beyond anyone’s control. We must take care not to create a circular firing squad because…

We need each other now more than ever. At a meta level, our job in winning is to build a bigger and better coalition. This will require us to stretch ourselves, our hearts, and our comfort zones in new ways.

Let us be compassionate, joyful warriors for the world we want to see. I know… we’re not there yet. But it’s important to name the leadership archetype that we are striving to embody in the way that we show up as people and as leaders in this new period.

Our job now is to build the biggest, smartest, most beautiful movement the world has ever seen. What this will look like is ours to invent. Let us surprise ourselves with our courage, creativity, and humor. Yes, humor. Humor is one of the keys to defeating authoritarianism (which we will all be reading a lot about in the coming days :). 

On behalf of the incredible MVP team, volunteers, and partners I am so grateful to be in this lifelong work with all of you. 

Thank you – no, seriously THANK YOU – for everything you have invested in time and money this cycle. You showed up in an incredible way. Together, we supported the biggest independent ground game this country has ever seen. It wasn’t enough to win. But luckily, unlike the candidate campaigns, the work we funded won’t go away. We strengthened our grassroots movement. And we are going to need MVP’s hundreds of amazing partner organizations – local, state, and national – to be strong, now more than ever. 

We will be checking in with our partners, supporting them, and strategizing with them about this next phase. Many of them will be facing intense new challenges – immigrant communities, women, poor and working class communities, young people, communities of color, Arab Americans, Muslims and Jews, and LGBTQ communities. At a meta-level, our job is to support and strengthen a big tent movement where we can see ourselves as part of a larger we – connected to each other toward a larger goal. 

We invite you to join with MVP and our partners as we hold hands and build the largest, most unified movement possible. If you are itching for something to do, you can join an MVP volunteer team or become a monthly sustainer of MVP or one of our many partner organizations. Right after every bad election, there is a surge of volunteerism and creativity. Let us harness our energy to build the world we want to create.

We need to reflect, strategize (be smarter than ever!), hold each other, and help each other become the best team of joyful warriors we can be to overcome this new challenge. 

We are honored to be in this work for the long haul with you.

With deepest love, respect, and gratitude,

Billy Wimsatt, MVP Executive Director
(on behalf of the amazing MVP team, volunteers, and partners)

p.s. – Wise words from my friend Justin Ruben from Parents Together, shared with permission…

Dear ones,

Ten things I’m reminding myself this morning. (Many of which overlap with Billy’s helpful list). Sharing them in case they’re helpful to anyone else. (But they’re meant for me and may not be at all right or helpful to you).

I’m sure that the degree to which this feels like a direct and immediate attack on your body or your immediate family will vary widely. If I can be helpful please let me know. None of us is alone.

1. These moments feel crushing and we get through them together. Hold your loved ones close. Check in with your people.

2. It’s natural—but not helpful—to rage at those closest to you.

3. Everyone gets to have their feelings today. And there’s no right way to feel. Try stay present with all the feelings. Because they’re here; because you can learn from them; because you can’t skip over mourning; because ultimately being present to what is is the only way to move forward.

4. The oxygen mask thing is real. Take the space to resource yourself so you can be there for your loved ones.

Also, it’s helpful to sing together.

5. Our ancestors—movement ancestors and family ancestors—went through worse than this and their wisdom can guide us.

Some of those ancestors left everything behind to keep their kids safe; and we can too if necessary; but that may not be where we are now. We can stay and fight while simultaneously making backup plans and contingencies.

6. On the one hand; this outcome not hard to explain. Ruling parties around the globe, on the right and the left, have been getting thrown out of power this year. It’s impossible to overstate the impact of inflation on how people feel about the country and its leaders. That is all real.

And. When MAGA lost last time, they doubled down and kept organizing.

And yet. My gut tells me that all of us on the side of truth and justice need to change shit up. A moment like this is a chance to see clearly what stories we’re telling ourselves that no longer serve; what assumptions we’re holding that are no longer tenable; what we’re going to do differently.

Again, that requires presence, open-heartedness, and clarity.

7. We have to move fast to get ready for what’s coming AND we have time to pause and figure out what to do next. I learned in EMT training that the first thing to do in an emergency is to take a breath and count to 10. Do that.

Be skeptical of answers that are too easy. Denial is a coping mechanism but it doesn’t serve us strategically.

8. This is not the path we would ever choose; but it’s the path we have. I’m the last person who would ever argue that things have to get really bad before change is possible. Sometimes bad is just bad. But our job as organizers is to see where there IS possibility and live into it. This really really sucks AND is in some strange way a blessing to be alive in a moment when we are needed.

We think we know what will happen now (and I’m confident many, many bad things will happen) but we don’t actually know how this is going to turn out. Complex systems change quickly and are very very hard to predict. Maybe the wreckage of this next period will contain the seeds of the new systems / strategies / ways of being the we desperately need to avoid apocalypse . Maybe not. But if we’re not all looking and working for those openings, good outcomes are less likely.

Look for the sparks. What DID work this cycle? These may not be immediately apparent.

9. It is reasonable to be angry at the people who just voted for MAGA. And/but — ultimately we need tens of millions of them to join us in building the world we envision.

How can we create movements that are irresistible?

Trump WANTS to fight with the left. He wants to send the army in to break up protest camps and jail people and restore order. We need a different resistance this time, one that is much broader and extends into the institutions and communities that he needs to stay in power. This will require need new tactics and strategies and alliances we never thought we’d need. What will you do differently help build that?

10. Countries have come back from authoritarianism. We can do it too. There are lots of lessons about how people have done this, and very smart folks who can help us learn them. (This paper is a reasonable place to start)

* * *

Sending love and solidarity to all of you this morning.
Justin