Why Massachusetts is dreading a Trump comeback

• He'll be aided by a GOP-led Senate, after Republicans flipped multiple seats, though it remains unclear which party will control the House.

State of play: Immediately after they celebrated U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren's victory last night, the mood among progressives took a gloomy turn as early results showed a strong showing from Trump in swing states.

What they're saying: "People in this room are scared to death. We're nervous wrecks," veteran LGBTQ activist Arline Isaacson told Axios at Democrats' election night gathering in the South End.

• Isaacson said many of the supporters at the event worked in Pennsylvania or another state for the Harris campaign.

Driving the news: Trump made triumphant remarks early Wednesday from West Palm Beach, Florida, promising a "new golden age" for America and marveling at his own political comeback.

• Vice President Harris, by contrast, did not speak at her own Election Night event in Washington, D.C.

The big picture: Trump's victory was buoyed by strong performances across several key battleground states.

True blue Mass. voters know the ultimate outcome was at the mercy of other states to determine the results of the presidential election.

• One of the most common refrains of Harris' campaign to defeat Trump had been: "We're not going back."
• In Massachusetts, community leaders, labor organizers and activists recall cuts to safety net programs, worker protections and other resources under Trump's first term — policy changes of the sort they're not eager to undergo again.

The other side: Local Republicans cheered Trump's return to office.

• "In Massachusetts, we've felt the failures of the Biden-Harris Administration profoundly," chair Amy Carnevale said in a statement, listing the migrant crisis, inflation and residents leaving the state because of cost as top pain points.

Zoom in: Under Trump's first term, Boston Logan Airport became the center of protests against his immigration policies, legal fights to let international students enter the country to attend Boston-area colleges and reunions between mothers and children who were separated at the border. 

• His immigration policies were at the heart of some of the dozens of lawsuits Gov. Maura Healey filed or joined against the federal government when she was the Massachusetts attorney general.

• "Trump would be a disaster for Massachusetts," Healey, who campaigned for Harris, said in a statement.

His administration created a chilling effort for immigrants and their families in Boston, says Dr. Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, CEO of the community development corporation Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción.

• But most of all, she remembers her residents fearing the repercussions of Trump trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
• "Losing health care, especially for working-class families, moderate-income families could be a dealbreaker in terms of their financial stability," Calderón-Rosado tells Axios.

Elizabeth Saunders, state director of Clean Water Action, recalls the Trump administration proposing budget cuts for the Environmental Protection Agency and trying to roll back the Clean Water Act.

• She worries a Trump victory could torpedo efforts to replace lead pipes across Massachusetts.
• "It's going to be much harder to maintain and improve water quality or environmental justice," Saunders says.

Abortion rights were the other major flashpoint for Massachusetts residents to come out of Trump's first term.

• The former president appointed the justices who penned the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision that struck down Roe v. Wade.
• The decision prompted Healey to stockpile abortion medication and add it to the state's shield law.
• Trump "would destroy reproductive freedom even more than he already has," she said.