Of course, for about half of American voters, the presidential result is good news. But for those who think it isn’t, are there any downticket results you are really happy (or relieved) with?
Pat McCrory seems to have lost. Glad to see some repudiation of the true evil that is HB2. Anybody know if sufficient anti-HB2 NC legislators (of any party) will be elected for HB2 to be repealed?
Joe Arpaio finally lost hist re-election.
Charlie Crist finally won one!
But seriously, Tammy Duckworth’s elevation to the Senate is HUGE. The Democrats have a very slim bench and Duckworth is a bona fide superstar. Potentially.
Democrats also elected the first Latina woman to the Senate in Nevada. I don’t think she’s a superstar at all, pretty ordinary, but a first is a first.
Marijuana seems to have advanced everywhere.
Most of my local election issues that I care about went the way I preferred and it makes it especially hard to celebrate since the national election went so poorly.
Marijuana is now legal in California and had a good night overall, paving the way towards ending this awful drug war and removing a tool for systematic police oppression. Prop 58 passed, repealing the awful Prop 227 which forced schools to only teach English. Scott Wiener won over Jane Kim for State Senate, hopefully ushering in an era of more sane housing policy for San Francisco and a good friend of mine won a hard fought race for SF School Board and will get to continue his good work making the school system more inclusionary and building bridges between the wealthy tech industry and the largely shut out SF natives.
Still though, I’d give all of that up for a single electoral vote Clinton presidency and an obstinate congress filibustering her every step along the way.
Marijuana is a good one. I think four medical marijuana and four recreational marijuana initialives passed. One was defeated. 2016 ballot measures - Ballotpedia
Was Florida Amendment 1 defeated (that would be GOOD)? Ballotpedia link shows NO winning with fewer votes 
How did David Duke do in Louisiana?
NYT shows David Duke getting about three percent of the vote. John Kennedy(R) winning.
Good news: At least Donald Trump didn’t win by a Nixonian landslide!
In Maine, we voted to raise the minimum wage ($9 per hour next year, $12 per hour by 2020, and indexed to inflation thereafter) and adopted ranked-choice voting.
Joe Arpaio losing is good news. That Hillary might win the popular vote as well, as it could be strong fodder for him to tone it down and maybe be a normal POTUS, and if he ekes it out in the popular vote, that it wasn’t a blowout and he still knows his re-election hopes can’t be “MAGA” because him being elected was supposed to already make America great again.
Jo A lost? The rule of law has hope.
Constitutional amendments in Florida need a 60% margin to pass: Amendment 1 received around 51%: a majority but not the necessary supermajority.
MMJ, on the other hand, passed with a whopping 71% of the vote (which also means that at least 22% of Florida voters voted for MMJ and also for Trump, which would be extremely weird except that few people are single-issue voters.) Last time around, it garnered more than 50% but less than the 60% required and so failed like Amendment 1 did this time.
And by that I don’t mean that Trump hates pot, but that he doesn’t mention it hardly at all, which means that it might be one of those “foreign and domestic policy” issues that Pence and his other advisors will be able to influence him on if they so choose. With control of all branches of government, you could see a crackdown on all weed, medical or not.
Ranked Choice Voting passed in Maine. Former Sheriff Mark Dion is now my State Senator. Chellie Pingree got re-elected, and I was even there for her victory speech.
Which comes with political consequences. Maybe they’re minor, but given what states have already done, I can’t see it happening without SOME pushback.