Dear John,

What a week! Like you, I spent the first few days fixated on vote counts, breaking news, and trying to get my head around what happened and what it means for us going forward. Some of it won’t be clear until early January, when two Georgia runoff elections determine whether Democrats will win control of the U.S. Senate. But the biggest takeaway did become clear Saturday with the wonderful news that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had officially won, even as Donald Trump continued to dispute the results.

Now that the ground has mostly stopped moving, and before I return to Washington next week to begin what could be a tumultuous “lame duck” session of Congress, I wanted to take a moment to share some thoughts about what we’ve just gone through together.

First, thank you! I’m deeply honored that you re-elected me to a fifth term in Congress and humbled by the fact that we had the largest margin of victory and the most votes I’ve ever received! Having your trust and confidence means everything to me. I’ll never take it for granted, and will always do my best to be worthy of it. I’m excited to get back to work!

Second, I cannot overstate how important it was that we ended the Trump presidency and elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to lead this country forward. After four years of authoritarian chaos and toxic division that threatened the continued existence of our democratic republic, our awakened nation voted in record numbers to reaffirm democracy, the rule of law, and basic decency. The waiting game for results made this unusual election seem far closer than it was: in the end, the Biden/Harris ticket will win the popular vote by a resounding 6 million vote margin, and secure at least 306 electoral college votes. History will record Trump as an impeached and repudiated one-term President who lost the popular vote in both of his elections.

This election also saw voters choose to add Democrats to the Senate and retain a Democratic majority in the House, albeit with a narrower margin. That’s cold comfort to those of us who worked hard to expand our House majority and had hoped for a more sweeping outcome. The lesson, I believe, is that even in big historic moments, change often comes incrementally. The American people were definitely ready to end the Trump presidency, and want Congress to work with him to effect real change, but voters remain deeply divided. Clearly, we have a lot more work to do, and that work begins now.

Finally, I believe President-elect Biden’s focus on healing and uniting this country is critically important. It doesn’t mean we should compromise our values or political priorities. But it does mean all of us should try to reset the tone. With Trump and some of his most aggressive allies, it’s difficult and maybe futile to be magnanimous because, whether in victory or defeat, they choose to be so ungracious and uninterested in conciliation. But for reasons we may not understand, after everything Trump has said and done, 70 million people still voted for him last week. They are not our enemies. Many of them are our friends, neighbors, family members, work colleagues, and all of them are fellow Americans.

Now that we’ve saved the republic, we need to keep it. Doing that requires more than just the institutional and political changes we’ll be pushing in the months ahead; it requires tempering the division, conflict and hyper-partisanship that Trump stoked and exploited.

I’m as passionate and competitive as anyone, and I’ve been in the trenches of our national food fight these past four years. I’m certainly not backing down in the fight to confront climate change, protect our environment, defend equality and civil rights, or anything else I care about. And I won’t ask politely for racists to stop suppressing votes, or for fossil fuel companies to stop wrecking the planet. But… because our country desperately needs to heal and unify, I know I need to make an extra effort to set a civil tone, to build goodwill and broaden strategic alliances, to give respect and conciliation where it is due, and to resist the constant temptations to take the low road. It won’t be easy, but I’m going to try and I invite you to hold me to this standard.

Thank you for your support and friendship. Let’s get to work.

Warm regards,

Jared Huffman