This post was written by reporter Cort Carlson.

At the beginning of Tuesday night, a group of excited group of Democrats including Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and Mayor Muriel Bowser gathered at Gordon Biersch on M Street to watch the results of the local and national elections come in.

Activists, union members and Democratic party staff exchanged cheers and gasps as the election results arrived state by state.

“I feel very good about Hillary Clinton who had to weather a false positive with the recent email problems which drove down our numbers,” Norton said.

Confidence mixed with grim apprehension as the restaurant crowd watched Clinton’s path to the White House dwindle on the brightly lit screens above the bar.

Norton received overwhelming support from D.C. voters and was elected to her 14th term as congresswoman for the District of Columbia. She won with 85 percent of the vote, according to the D.C. Board of Elections website.

Despite a lack of voting power due to D.C.’s uniquely defined representation in the House and Senate, Holmes Norton has championed the movement for D.C. statehood since her first term in 1991. D.C. Shadow Senator Paul Strauss and Shadow Representative Franklin Garcia were also present at the event.

This election, residents voted in favor of a referendum calling for D.C. to become a state. Congress must approve the referendum in order for D.C. to achieve statehood.

“I feel joyous that D.C. residents have given us the votes for D.C. statehood,” Holmes Norton said in an interview.

Bowser arrived later on in the night, bringing with her reinvigorated optimism for the outcome of the election and the fate of D.C.

“We only achieve full equality when Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and our senators Brown and Strauss get the right to vote,” Bowser said to boisterous cheers. “We’re going to work with the new president and Congress to send a strong message to the whole nation that D.C. must have full equality and we will become the 51st state.”