Long after the watch parties had ended, in the wee hours of the night, the final votes were counted, making Donald J. Trump the 47th President of the United States of America.
Vice President Harris chose not to speak to her supporters at Howard University as her election watch party came to an end. The crowd dispersed somberly in disbelief of the impending results. At our last check at 3:30 am CST, the electoral college votes were still tallied at 267 for Trump and 224 for Harris, with Trump needing just one more state to win. Now at 4:44 am CST, with the gain of 10 electoral votes from Wisconsin, it’s been confirmed.
What does this mean for the next four years? What does it mean for women’s and other minorities’ rights and even safety? We saw the aftermath of Trump losing in 2020. Imagine what could happen from him winning. This is the same person who said maybe “the purge” isn’t such a bad idea. We, no, I strongly suggest that you, our soulmates, stay inside if at all possible today.
You may be saying, “This is Austin! There’s nothing to worry about here,” but it’s also a blue dot in a red state and the Capital City, which means people from other cities tend to come and rally here, for negative and positive reasons. So, just be mindful as you go about your day.
As for state and local elections, Ted Cruz (R) will serve another term as U.S. Senator, beating out Colin Allred (D) 53.37% of the votes to 44.31%. Ted Brown (I) also received 2.32% of the votes in that race.
Locally, current Austin Mayor Kirk Watson has won his bout for reelection by narrowly missing a runoff, earning 50.01% of the votes. (With there being five candidates, a 50% vote would be needed to win without a runoff.) He ran against four opponents: Carmen Llanes Pulido, 20.15%; Kathie Tovo, 16.64%; Jeffrey Bowen, 8.4%; and Doug Greco, 4.81%, and incumbent District Attorney José Garza (D) won against Daniel Betts (R) with 67.57% of the votes.
The Travis County Prop A, a 2.5-cent property tax increase to expand access to affordable child care, after-school programming, and related services for low-income families, passed.
The Austin ISD Prop A, a 0.95% property tax ratification to mostly increase the pay rate for AISD teachers and staff members, also passed.
The Travis County ESD No. 2 Prop A, which would take away a half-cent of sales tax from the Pflugerville Fire Department, or ESD, was voted against.
Finally, the City of Austin Prop P asked voters if an untaxed area in the city of Austin’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), containing 35 lots on approximately 96.9 acres of land on Menchaca Road south of Slaughter Lane, should be released from the ETJ and placed into unincorporated Travis County. Receiving only 10 votes, this passed 7 to 3.
