Take the day after election night off of work

Multiple people told me to take the day after Election Day off of work, but I was insistent that I wouldn't need to. Little did I know that the Democratic Party would go so late. The first results drop came after 9:00 pm last night because Utah passed a directive on Monday stating that if you are in line to vote by 8:00 pm, you can (and should) stay to cast your votes. 

That meant that we all waited around for a very long time last night. I'm glad I went to the party and hung out with my campaign team and saw the hype and excitement of what that party entails. Real talk though - I knew myself, and I would have been fine (and would have preferred) hanging out with my husband and watching tv on my couch, or even gathering a few close friends and playing games and then checking online when the time came. I didn't know what to expect though, so I went to the party to "receive" my results. 

After mingling and saying hi to people, Cameron and I snuck off to the hotel lobby and hung out there in quiet and played on our phones. This was around 8:45 pm. We were beckoned back into the room my campaign team had rented for the evening, and waited another 30 minutes or so before receiving our results. My campaign lead, Sara, came up to me and asked how I was doing and did I want to see the results. I said, "I don't know," but then stepped to the side as she showed me which website to visit and how to view my results. 

At first glance, I was 8.5% down from my opponent. It was a bummer to see, but also, I didn't feel particularly positive or negative because riding at 45% and 54% felt pretty close and we knew that there were maaaaany more ballots to count. Cameron and I waited until our turn to meet with Gabi and Jackie, some of the Elevate Strategies founders, and then we were finally ushered into a conference room with Gabi and Jackie on one side of the table. They started off congratulating me and letting me know that the numbers weren't good, but also, you just don't know with this kind of thing. We laughed, too, pictures, and I told them I was ready to go home and go to bed and would love to hear from them tomorrow. Jackie laughed and said, "If you're in a place to sleep right now, that's amazing." 

I can't imagine how late their night was. But then again, they probably took today off. ;)

The gap has widened overnight to 43% and 56%, so it's not looking like a victory for me, but hot dang am I proud of myself. Almost 13000 people voted for me and that's absolutely incredible. I'm definitely grieving the loss, but I'll write more later. It's time to head to work...and I definitely should have taken today off purely to catch up on sleep. I'll make a mental note of that for the future.