Well, I did my civic duty and voted in the primary. Some of my candidates did not win, and I’m actually a lot more disappointed than I expected to be, especially about the Governor’s race.

I voted for Erin Murphy after considering a switch to Walz. I was worried about a Swanson victory and thought Walz might be better, but I ultimately went with my heart and what I believed was best. I thought Walz would be a fine second choice. But now, I’m looking at the two white guys running for Governor, same as always, and I’m really disappointed.

I don’t vote on identity first and foremost – if Sarah Palin was running against a very vanilla old white man who ran on my values, the dude is getting my vote. Values matter. And I think that’s what makes me most sad – Erin’s #PoliticsofJoy and positive, progressive stances were refreshing and uplifting. Those aren’t common words in politics. It’s not so much that there was a woman on the ballot – I wasn’t nearly as excited to vote for Tina Smith or even Amy Klobuchar – but it was that Erin was not afraid to do what she thought was right, from choosing a running mate to taking a strong position about police misuse of force and violence after another police shooting, long before the other candidates did.

My daughter once again asked me the other day “if Hillary had won, would she have been the first girl President?” She knows the answer is yes, but when I tell her yes, she gets really excited, like the idea that a girl was almost President is so exciting. I believe women are great leaders. There is research showing that women are good leaders. And I’m disappointed that we won’t have the option to vote for one in November.

I’ll vote for Tim Walz, barring some terrible situation. He’s fine. Better than Swanson. WAY better than Johnson. I’ll encourage others to vote for him. I might even be excited at some point. However, right now I’m just kind of bummed.

I’ll get over it.