Election Night
The hotel suite quieted for the announcement of the first state – Delaware for Santos with 59 of the vote. No surprise, but still, it was something. On Election Day, nothing could be taken for granted.
One out of 50, Josh thought to himself, pacing in the back of the room. Three out of a necessary 270 electoral votes. His suit coat had been discarded as soon as he entered, finally out of the public view where he had to look 100 confident in a win. A landslide, he had jokingly told a reporter. The sweat was beginning to seep through the back of his shirt. He had lost just about all of the hair he had left over the past few weeks.
They had all worked the last 36 hours straight, the 2 weeks before that, and the year before that. It all came down to this day. A bus caravan had taken them through 11 states in the past day and a half, even doing a 12:30 AM rally outside the Metrodome in Minneapolis where they got a crowd of 10,000 to come out in the middle of the night. It had been a great ride. It had been a great last day. Now they could only wait.
Josh could admit that it looked positive. Certainly not locked up. Not even great. But he could be cautiously optimistic – very cautiously. But until he knew, his stomach would be in knots. Either way, it looked to be a long night.
Early exit polls showed the solid Blue states falling with Santos and the solid Red states with Vinick. No real surprises there. Nine states were truly competitive – Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina, Arizona, Florida and Texas. Santos was polling very competitively in several traditional Red states. Josh had expected more movement than normal due to the strong Latino population in some of the Southern states, but the campaign had been surprised when tracking polls in the final weeks showed some religious conservatives in the Bible Belt leaning towards Santos. It seemed that even if he wasn't as socially conservative as they would like, he appealed to them as the more spiritual of the two candidates. They had been to North Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona each at least three times in the past 14 days.
Josh had looked at the models over and over again, until he had them memorized, and then confused, and then re-memorized. He had crunched the numbers and looked at every possible scenario. If Vinick won California, Santos had to win Texas to win. There was no way around it, no matter how many nights he had stayed up playing with the Electoral College numbers – even giving Santos impossibly Republican states like Utah. Texas would be the key, he was sure of it.
The Congressman and his wife were in the bedroom of the suite with the door closed. They could be making out, arguing, or just having a powwow about the state of the race. Josh had learned to always expect the unexpected with those two. But he valued their friendship and enjoyed their relationship, as much as he and Mrs. Santos had had their disagreements.
Donna walked in, her hair wet by the rain, looking exhausted but upbeat. She was attached to a cell phone, as she had been for more than 48 hours straight. She had slept about 10 hours in the past four days.
After working on communications with Lou throughout the race, Donna had taken over the gigantic task of overseeing get-out-the-vote efforts across the country in the last five days of the race. It doesn't matter how many voters you sway if they don't actually get to the polls on Election Day.
Josh glanced up from a final report on the East Coast exit polling to see her walk in. She was in control.
"Where are you? … Yeah, we've got another 45 minutes 'til the polls close to let's do another round to the people who haven't answered yet … how many so far? … In precinct 11? … Wow, those are great numbers… okay, great, call me back when the polls close – I want another report."
Donna snapped the cell phone closed, and walked over to Josh.
"Things are going good at the Teamsters and Electricians halls. They've still got drivers going to the polls, and they're starting the fourth round of calls," she said. Josh beamed inside.
"I just talked to Jake in Phoenix and in precinct 11 they got over 60 calls and knocks for Santos," she rattled off, indicating a particularly important area outside Phoenix sounded very positive for Santos.
"Excellent," Josh said, surveying the room. Not too many people were there yet. Most were still at the headquarters, doing last minute phone calls or giving rides to the last few voters before the polls closed. He looked distant, but Donna knew his mind was just in 100 places. "That's great," he said again.
"I'm going back out in a minute – I just need to touch base with Lou."
"She's over there," Josh said, pointing to a back table.
"Okay, I'll touch base with you later," Donna said, beginning to walk away.
"Donna," Josh stopped her. She turned around. "Really – great job."
"Thanks," she said, a half smile creeping across her face. Her blonde hair was matted, but she was beaming. After everything they'd been through professionally - and especially with the nomination fight - it had been extremely meaningful for him to put her in charge of GOTV efforts. His praise was frosting on the cake. She knew that he now saw her as an equal partner, capable of making a meaningful contribution other than as his assistant. There certainly had been some bumps – God, had there been – during the campaign, but they had ironed them out. A few heart to hearts, a few yelling matches, and they'd come out fine.
Two hours later, Josh had even less hair and most of the team was back at the suite. The Congressman and Mrs. Santos were chatting with staff, trying to appear calm. Then again everyone was, so they were all in the same boat. Twenty states had been announced, all on the East Coast and Midwest and all pretty solid Red and Blue states. No major surprises. The one big win the Santos column so far was Pennsylvania, which he had won by 2. Tight, but a win is a win. The suite had exploded in jubilation. Minnesota and Iowa were still up for grabs, with the numbers pretty close. Florida's polls had just closed an hour earlier, so there wasn't much information yet. California, Washington and Oregon still had polls open for another 20 minutes. The volunteers down at the Austin headquarters had been calling voters in those states since the Texas polls closed 40 minutes ago.
A few minutes earlier Donna had returned, on the phone once again. She was getting reports from California. It was as they expected – solid turnout for Santos but it wouldn't beat Vinick. It was disappointing but not unexpected. She continued to work the phones.
"CNN is ready to declare North Carolina…" Wolf Blitzer began.
"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" Josh screamed, his voice breaking as he had gone hoarse hours earlier.
"…for Congressman Matthew Santos…"
The room erupted and Josh had to read the 49-45 margin of victory on the screen because he could no longer hear Wolf. Another solid win in a traditional Red state. His optimism jumped just slightly.
Everyone around him was jumping up and down, celebrating another victory. This scene had played out about five times as key states fell for Santos. Josh quickly retreated into his mental picture of the US map. Okay, with North Carolina and Virginia – which they won about 20 minutes earlier – they were only 123 electoral votes behind Vinick, who had become the first Republican since Ronald Reagan to win California in a presidential election. Josh paced for a few more moments, quickly counting up electoral votes in his head for the remaining states.
They had to win Texas. Vinick could win everything else and he couldn't beat them with Texas. If they lost Texas, it was over.
Donna watched Josh from her seat a few feet away. He was doing the map thing. She was convinced he had a 'map face' that he wore when he was crunching Electoral College numbers in his head. She just watched, thinking for the first time that she was very proud of him. No matter what happened, she was so proud of him. He had found his candidate, groomed him, and was now hours away from potentially guiding his candidate to the presidency. Not bad for one man.
Josh walked over to the Congressman and Mrs. Santos and asked them to step into the back bedroom for a moment.
"Okay, I've done the math," he started, his hands on his hips.
"We need Texas," Mrs. Santos interrupted. Josh stopped – broken from his spell for a moment. She smiled coyly, as if to remind him that she could count too.
"Uh, yes," he said, with just the slightest hint of annoyance in his voice. "Texas is it. If we win Texas, we win. If we lose Texas, we lose."
Santos stared at him. He was a Texas native. He'd grown up on the rough streets of Austin as a skinny Latino youth and then served them in Congress. But he didn't know if Texas would abandon him now, at the most crucial point in his professional and political life.
Josh studied his face. Santos was taking in the news, processing it. The entire election – the past year and a half - came down to his home state. Normally, that would mean a shoo in. With very few exceptions, candidates won their home states. But a Democrat hadn't won Texas since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Would Santos?
"The exit polling from 30 minutes ago shows it close, with you at a slight lead. But that's just exit polling. We won't know until…" he nodded to a window outside, "they know."
"Okay," Santos said. He rubbed his head in thought. "Can we have a minute?"
Josh nodded. "Thank you Congressman," he said, stepping out into the main suite and closing the door behind him. They were going to powwow.
He spotted Donna on the other side of the room intently scouring some new voter turnout numbers she had just been given. Josh walked over to her. Donna looked up.
"Looks like the turnout in North Carolina really sealed it up for us," she said, looking back at the paper. "57 percent of registered blacks, 81 percent of registered women…" Her voice trailed off.
They stayed that way for a moment, quiet amidst the chaos; her in the chair, him standing next to her.
"It comes down to Texas," he said quietly.
She nodded, looking up at him. "Well we knew this could happen. That's why we spent so much time and money here in the past few weeks."
"Yeah," Josh said, internally questioning every decision the campaign had made in the past two weeks.
He sighed, sliding down to sit on the floor, his back against her chair. "We should have cancelled the rally in Cleveland and done a fifth one here," he said, rubbing his forehead, lost in thought.
"Josh, don't," she said, her voice firm. It broke his thought process.
"What's done is done. You made the best decisions you could. Stop."
He was silent for a moment. "Yeah," he said unenthusiastically. They sat there silent, each staring out at the crowd that had gathered in the suite.
Santos' numbers in Texas had been steadily creeping up. At least three people in the suite had been on the Secretary of State's website at all times, getting updates every five minutes. Josh was on and off the phone. CNN, MSNBC and FOX all had about the same percentages, even if the numbers were slightly different.
Santos was winning, but barely. Vinick was hanging in there. Less than 5,000 votes separated them.
It was 1:16 AM. Josh hadn't slept in over two days. Everything had been called except Texas. It came down to that, just as they had known for hours.
"With 99.7 percent of the votes tallied, CNN is ready to declare –
In an instant, the room went silent. The tension was palpable.
"– Matthew Santos as the 44th President of the United States."
The roar was deafening. The Congressman and his wife kissed, embracing each other. The family, friends and staff who had waited it out in the suite seemed to scream in unison. They hugged and kissed each other, jumping up and down. Someone popped a bottle of champagne.
Josh couldn't move. In both Bartlet victories, it hadn't come down to this. They had been more confident. It hadn't started with him flying to Texas to convince Bartlet to run. It hadn't been his baby the way this had been. He couldn't move. The awe and immense jubilation froze him there.
After what seemed like minutes but was about two seconds, he turned to his right. There was Donna, arms in the air, head back, blonde hair sailing as she jumped in the air. He took two steps, grabbed her, putting his hand around the back of her head, and kissed her as hard as he could. The combination of his complex and long-held feelings for her and the moment made him want to explode.
His hand slipped from her head, to the back of her neck, moving along her soft hair. After just a moment, she kissed back, their lips acting as if they had always been meant to meet. One of Donna's hands moved to rest on Josh's arm, the other on his hip.
They kissed for over a minute, embracing each another for what seemed like a lifetime.
When they parted, their eyes met. Donna smiled, and let out a nervous, soft chuckle. His chin on his chest, Josh looked at her and gave her kind of a shy, embarrassed smile.
"Congratulations," she said softly.
"You too," he said, as the noise of the room began to seep back into his consciousness.
Looking around, he realized that it had been at least a couple of minutes since the announcement and he still hadn't talked to the Congressman – uh, the President.
Josh looked at Donna. "I'll be right back, okay?" he said tenderly.
"Yeah, go do what you've gotta do."
The sun was rising outside, small rays beginning to light the room otherwise only lit by two small lamps. Most of the staff had either crashed on couches or gone to their own rooms in the hotel. Santos had made his victory speech in the hotel's ballroom downstairs, and retired to his own room – separate from the suite – with Mrs. Santos to do God knows what. Josh had his theories, but he didn't care to think about them.
He chatted with a few remaining staffers – the die hards – and decided it was time for sleep. He was so tired he could barely keep himself upright. The adrenaline of the last few days and the win had kept him going, but now it was catching up. All he could think about was a bed.
"See you guys in… a few hours," he said, glancing at his watch. It was almost 5:30 AM.
" 'night Josh."
He walked down the hall towards the elevator, but rather than getting on and riding to his room one floor down, he stopped outside room 564. He knocked.
Donna answered, wearing her old UW-Madison sweatshirt and shorts. Without looking even remotely surprised to see him, she told him to come in.
"You look like –
The teasing remark wasn't out of her mouth, and the door had barely shut, before he slammed her body against the wall, kissing her frantically. She replied in kind. Everything melted away as they groped at each other, him pushing up her sweatshirt and her frantically unbuttoning his shirt so they could each touch skin.
Years of pent up sexual energy fueled their passion, and they grabbed at each other like two clumsy teenagers.
Suddenly, he stopped. He put his forehead against hers, her head resting against the wall.
"I love you, Donna." His eyes panned up to meet hers. She starred at him.
"I love you," she said in a whisper.
He kissed her again, this time softly, sweetly. They both smiled, still gently kissing each other until they were once again in a frantic race to tear off each other's clothes. He grabbed her legs and hoisted her up, as she wrapped them around his waist. He walked several feet, and dropped her on the bed. She laughed as she bounced.
"I just…" he started, still standing and not knowing exactly what he wanted to say. "I want you to know that before anything…" he said, gesturing towards the bed. She knew what he meant.
He looked down, preparing for a mea culpa he knew he wanted and needed to make. "I know I've done a lot of stupid things, and I know I've hurt you –
"Josh, stop," Donna instructed for the second time that night. "What's done is done. I've done a lot of stupid things too. We've also done a lot of great things together, as a team and for each other. We're here now, even with everything."
"Yeah," he said, suddenly overcome by how beautiful she looked in that ratty sweatshirt.
"Josh, I know," she said, putting a hand up asking him to climb onto the bed with her.
"I think we both know," he said, as he kicked off his shoes and crawled onto the bed. "I think we've always known."
THE END