The long slog of the 2020 US presidential campaign has finally arrived at its end. 92 million Americans have already voted, millions more will do so today, and by the early hours of Wednesday morning, we’ll know…something. It’s just not clear what.
GQ talked to eleven plugged-in people about their plans for the day. Some are getting to the heart of the action, reporting from D.C. and New York, while others are getting as far away from it as possible, hiding out in the gym or the country. Unlike the 2016 presidential election, when pundits and everyday people alike started off with the expectation that Clinton would win, no one seems sure what will happen tonight, and no one knows how the President will react. There was consensus on just one thing—it’s going to be a long day.
Jamaal Bowman, Candidate for New York’s 16th Congressional District
Jamaal Bowman defeated incumbent Eliot Engel, who had represented the district for 32 years, in the Democratic primary earlier this year—he is all but assured victory today.
I’m trying to control my nerves—I’m drinking green tea, hanging out with my wife. Yesterday was my anniversary, today is the biggest Election Day in American history. And my election as well, which no one seems to be worried about except me! People are saying, “Jamaal, you got it!” and I’m like, “Listen man, there’s someone else there. I don’t want 100,000 people to go in, vote for Biden, and forget to vote for me, too.” I guess the short answer is, I’m a wreck, and I’m doing the best I can.
I’m trying to take it easy today. I’ll be going to poll sites throughout the day, speaking to reporters and driving around the district with the comms team and a couple journalists. I’m getting home in the early evening, and I’ll watch news and spend time with my family. I hit the ground running in about 10 days, when I head to orientation in Washington, so the more time I can spend with my family, the better. At some point, I’ll probably turn the news off. The mainstream media can be good at creating so much stress. If they’re covering the news in a way that’s amenable to my emotional constancy, then I’ll watch. But if it gets too late, I’ll go to sleep.
Anthony Scaramucci, Former White House Press Secretary
After having eight shots of espresso on election morning and stress eating all of the Halloween candy that was collected over the weekend, I’m going to be down in my home office doing television. I’m doing some local news in New York and some battleground states and I’ll likely be doing CNN in the evening. During the evening, I’ll be also doing European morning shows.
I’ll be biting my nails to the point of bleeding. If Trump loses, like a good groundhog on Groundhog Day, I’m going to emerge from my basement and declare the winter over in America.
Stuart Stevens, Lincoln Project Co-founder
I’m going to be with Lincoln Project out in Utah. Every election day I mainly just try to go for a long run and go to the gym. Depending on the weather, some of the Lincoln Project crowd will get together that afternoon and just hang out outside, and then we’ll do something the night of, but I don’t know what it is yet.
I always ignore exit polls. I’m totally happy to be completely checked out. I’ll be up late, until there’s a decision, but exit polls are just so flawed. I don’t think this is going to be close. I’m expecting an early decision. But I can’t tell whether Trump’s going to accept it.
Brian Williams, Anchor, The 11th Hour with Brian Williams on MSNBC
Normally, my work shift leaves me out of synch with much of the standard American work day. I need to be at my energetic best between 11 and midnight each night, and it normally takes hours to come down from that. I’m the antithesis of a morning person. Luckily, it’s great practice for election night, the one event every two years that happens to be on my clock. It makes zero sense to get all wound up early in the day, because all that counts is what takes place after poll closing.