With reporting by Bryan Cohen and Alex Garland

You can’t always get what you want. The disappointment in the Election Night 2016’s national results was tempered — at least partly — by progress at home where history has been made by a woman of color elected to Congress and a vote of approval for a massive upgrade to the Puget Sound region’s transportation system.

UPDATE 9:45 PM: Calling it a “tough night in some ways,” on the stage at Optimism Brewing, Pramila Jayapal said her big win Tuesday night shows what can happen “when you all engage in the process, when you all build our grassroots movement together, express your opinions, rally your neighbors and build a mighty progressive movement.”

Jayapal, a first-term senator serving the state’s 37th District,will become the first Indian American woman elected to Congress. In the closing weeks of the race, Sen. Bernie Sanders headlined a rally for Jayapal, a prize endorsement given the former presidential candidate’s overwhelming popularity in the district that also showcased Jayapal’s stronger national presence in the race.

@ChaoticNoiseMC invades @OptimismBrewing during election results pic.twitter.com/GSu5tpYi9V

— Alex Garland (@AGarlandPhoto) November 9, 2016

“Love does trump hate,” Jayapal said later in the night. She welcomed outgoing Rep. Jim McDermott who will retire after representing the 7th District for 14 terms. “Either way, this is going to be a tremendously tumultuous four years for America,” McDermott said.

UPDATE 9/9/2016: In a statement mailed to supporters Wednesday, Jayapal looked at the challenges ahead:

Like many of you, I woke up this morning feeling shocked and then fearful of what lies ahead for America. But this is not the time to sit down in the face of set backs. To the people of the 7th Congressional District and progressive voters across the country, I ask that we stand together – not just for our progressive ideals, but to stop the disastrous rollback of decades of mainstream progress in this country. This is not the fight we would have chosen but we will fight it the way we have fought to protect our rights and freedoms in the past.

“My mind is not on our race right now,” Brady Walkinshaw said of the national results as he awaited the first count in his race with Jayapal to lead Washington’s 7th District in Congress.

UPDATE 9/9/2016: In an email statement Wednesday morning, Walkinshaw wished Jayapal well in her victory:

Our race was competitive, but the aspirations that unite us vastly outweigh our differences. My gratitude and congratulations to Senator Jayapal, who I know for certain will be a courageous and tireless voice for us in Congress and who’ll carry the values we share here to our country, especially with the uncertain future we face. She has my full support.”

UPDATE 8:31 PM: With most eyes focused on the neck and and neck presidential race and disappointingly strong showing from Donald Trump, the first counts in King County and Washington have been delayed by what was described as a “computer glitch.”

UPDATE 11:40 PM: CNN reports that Hillary Clinton has conceded the race to Trump.

UPDATE 1:30 AM: A small but raucous anti-Trump protest filled the intersection of 10th and Pike with participants exhorting Pike/Pine onlookers to “get off the sidewalk and do something.” Starting around 12:30 AM, some in the crowd lit papers on fire drawing a response from the several Seattle Police officers on hand and their ready fire extinguisher. The protesters shifted to block Broadway and Pike and continued to block traffic and dance and shout “Not my president.”

Seattle Fire and police also responded to a handful of arson fires around Capitol Hill during the protest including a stubborn tree fire on E Pine near Boylston and a dumpster fire near Melrose and Denny.

More fires were reported around 1:50 AM including a fire in Cal Anderson Park and a garbage truck that caught fire apparently due to loading burning trash near Harvard and Pine. Most of the small fires were quickly extinguished. The garbage truck operators were forced to dump their smoldering load creating quite a mess for SDOT.

There were no reports of any arrests associated with the protest or the fires.

Small protest at 10/Pike. "Fuck Trump" pic.twitter.com/3EUquxxTH7

— jseattle (@jseattle) November 9, 2016

Chaotic Noise at 10th and Pine pic.twitter.com/uDCMOeZ6Q7

— Bryan Cohen (@bchasesc) November 9, 2016

UPDATE 8:55 PM: After a long delay, King County has dropped its first results in raw format so pardon any ugliness as we work out the totals. In our first tally, we show Jayapal leading Walkinshaw 57.36% to 41.81%, counting write-ins.

In the 43rd, Nicole Macri lead Dan Shih 65.25% to 34.35%, counting write-ins. As the deputy director of Downtown Emergency Services Center, Macri has been a leading proponent of housing first policies that seek to rapidly house homeless people before starting other interventions. Macri won 52% of the vote in the primary.

UPDATE x2: King County is spitting out the graphics again. Their totals don’t include write-ins, however:

Elsewhere in the state, Pierce County’s contribution to the Sound Transit 3 vote totals weren’t helpful for the pro crowd. It’s a combined majority vote across the three involved counties but Pierce’s early 55.5% “no” tallies left a lot of ground to cover for King County voters. Snohomish County voters were voting 51% in favor in the first counts.

ST3 will drastically expand light rail in the region. The $53.8 billion package will extend light rail lines to Redmond by 2024, Ballard by 2035, and West Seattle by 2030. Extensions into Everett and Tacoma will come in the following years. The expanded system will require a second downtown tunnel.

UPDATE x3: Here were the ST3 totals as of 9 PM. Nice work, King County.

Despite the gloomy outlook across the nation, Democrats did alright in Washington State. Gov. Jay Inslee easily outperformed GOP challenger Bill Bryant and incumbent Senator Patty Murray sent her challenger Chris Vance to an early defeat.

UPDATE 7:00 PM: Things didn’t start with a whole lot of optimism. At Moe Bar, Hayley Young, 34, watched gravely as results came in and said she was scared and confused about how Trump had come so far in the election.

“When Bush was elected president at second time it felt like the end of the world, but we survived,” she said. “This is 100 times worse. Maybe we deserve it.”

Useful Links

• 13+ Capitol Hill Election Night Parties
• CHS Election coverage | 7th District | 43rd District | Sound Transit 3
• King County Elections |  Washington Elections — Results after 8 PM
• @jseattle on Twitter
• Capitol Hill traffic cams

In 2016, there was hope that the dancing could start early on E Pike. We will be ready. In a mix of tradition — 2008, 2012 — and the necessity of devotedly documenting Capitol Hill’s place in Seattle’s political history, CHS will once again post updates, notes, observations, pictures, videos, Tweets, Facebook posts, graffiti, posters, songs, etc. from the Election Day and Night happenings around Broadway, Pike/Pine, and beyond.

In addition to defeating fascism on the national front, there are important races here at home. We’ll have updates on those, too, along with some reports from local campaign parties and a watch on some larger issues like Sound Transit 3 and, maybe the largest, the Democrats’ hopes for evening things out in Olympia. Flipping the state Senate could have major repercussions. When Seattle legislators face questions at home about why certain bills failed or why they haven’t pushed for a more progressive agenda, they inevitably point across the aisle. With a Democratic governor and Democrat-controlled state House, the Senate represents the one major power lever in Olympia under Republican control. Democrats have to effectively flip two seats (and hold on to the ones they have) to take control of the 49-member body. 26 seats are up for election this year.

Using the Broadway ballot drop box? Here are some important updates and tips. Get there by 8 PM!

CHS has photographers and friends around the Hill tonight. You can follow @jseattle on Twitter to find out about many of their updates, etc. We will also post here along the way as well as sharing on facebook.com/capitolhillseattleblog. You can help out by sharing your pictures with us via [email protected] or by sending along a Tweet or three. You can also call/txt CHS at (206) 399-5959. Heck, if you run into me at a party or in the street, you can tell me to my face. We’ll take it.

Happy democracy. Our open thread is below.