LOUISVILLe, Ky. — Shortly after the Associated Press called the presidential election for Joe Biden Saturday, Joanna Javed saw a post on her private neighborhood Facebook group. “It said, ‘We’re popping champagne. Come out and celebrate,’” she said.
So Javed did. And as drivers honked in celebration and kids danced in the street, other neighbors joined in. By 1:30 Saturday there were a dozen kids and half as many adults waving American flags, shouting at cars, and celebrating an outcome in the presidential election that Javed said she’d been praying for.
“We’ve all been so excited about the end of the Trump four-year term,” she said. “When they finally called it today, we just had to all come celebrate — even the kids.”
They weren’t the only ones. As spontaneous street parties cropped up around the country, pedestrians in Biden masks and motorists holding Biden signs honked and waved at each on Bardstown Road. One driver shouted the news from her hybrid: “Biden won!”
Another woman at the corner of Bardstown Road and Eastern Parkway held a homemade, cardboard sign that said “Lock Him Up.” As cars waited at the light, she serenaded them: “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye.” Many drivers honked their approval. One passed with its windows down and an explicit, anti-Trump song by the rapper YG playing at full volume.
David Caldwell, whose family was out with Javed’s, said he and his children have been closely watching election results since Tuesday. “When we saw that Pennsylvania was called we were just so excited,” he said, referring to the AP’s projection that Biden would win Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes, given him more than the 270 needed to be elected president. “We have to come outside and share it with someone.”
Once Biden moves into the White House, Caldwell said he hopes the country will be more tolerant and loving. “We just hope that it’ll just be more civil, people will be nicer and love each other more. And there will be a more elevated sense of leadership in the country,” he said. Today Cadwell is celebrating though, as the three champagne bottles on his porch made clear.
For Javed, the end of Trump’s presidency is more than a relief, it’s a chance for a better life for some of the people she loves most, she said. “I have a brother that’s gay,” she said. “I have a mixed-race child. I just feel like their future is better if we don’t have a xenophobic, misogynistic, megalomaniac as president."