I don’t usually stay awake to watch midterm election returns, but last night I watched more than seven hours of KornackiCam while my friends and I exchanged jubilant text messages as the sheer breadth of the election night wave became clear.

Lisa Lerer, writing for The New York Times:

In the end, it wasn’t just a wave. It was a wipeout.

A Democrat won a Senate seat in Kansas for the first time since the Herbert Hoover administration. The party picked up Senate seats in Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina. Republicans even fell short in House districts in the South where they had tried to give themselves an edge by drawing new, gerrymandered maps.

The sweeping Democratic victories on Tuesday night offered a decisive rebuke to President Trump and his aggressive, often chaotic second-term agenda.

Both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal described Tuesday’s election results as a “stunning rebuke” of Donald Trump. (Also: a drubbing, a landslide, an earthquake, a wipeout, and a rout.)

Democrats seized decisive control of Congress, flipping seven Senate seats for a total of 54 (and may yet gain a 55th and 56th), while the House of Representatives will see at least 236 Democrats and possibly as many as 258.

Democrats also flipped five governors’ seats, securing control of a majority of governorships—including, for the first time in U.S. history, simultaneous Black governors. Five of them, in fact. (One is a bright-red MAGA from Florida, but still.)

Those governorships also include Gina Hinojosa, who will become the first Latina governor in Texas state history, and Xavier Becerra, the first Latino governor of California in 150 years.

In America’s 250th year, there were several firsts. Terry Tang, AP News:

There were cheers and happy tears at election parties from New Mexico to Georgia late Tuesday once it became clear voters had elected the country’s first Black female governor, the first Native American female governor, the first Native female senator and the first openly gay male U.S. senator. By early Wednesday, the first Muslim U.S. senator was also added to the list of barrier-breaking milestones. The astonishing blue wave also means the United States will likely have its first-ever Black speaker of the House.

This is America finally voting for leaders more reflective of the diversity in our country. It’s a welcome change.

This election is a clear repudiation of Trump and his divisive politics, but having seen the fever break briefly before, I remain cautious. In truth, the patient is still sick. The prognosis has improved significantly in the last day, though. Perhaps we are finally on a path to healing.