A long, tense evening ends with a dramatic finish: a Trump election victory
By Kelly Fichtner
All year, Americans have been listening to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton make their cases for why each is most fit to serve as America’s 45th president. Finally, on Tuesday night, the John Carroll University Lombardo Student Center conference room filled slowly with students, anxiously awaiting answers to the question that had been debated all year: Who would be the next president of the United States of America?
The sights and sounds of CNN’s live election coverage by Wolf Blitzer, Jake Tapper, Dana Bush and Anderson Cooper dominated the conference room as everyone intently watched each state get claimed by a candidate. Tensions rose in the room as the final result edged closer, all watchers knowing that the outcome was out of their control and they could only speculate on who the new commander-in-chief would be.
Political professionals claimed that, based on early polling and their predictions, Clinton was most likely to win the election. However, not everyone was content with these premature answers.
“Based on social media, Trump gets the most hate. But many people I have talked to say they are voting for Trump. I think he has more support than people realize,” said Morgan Might, a John Carroll freshman.
Other students seemed to agree with the early projections of a Clinton win.
“Earlier on, I was thinking Trump would win the election, because he seemed to be winning most states. But I think near the end Hillary will win,” said Caroline Bernitt, a sophomore journalism student.
Students weren’t the only people with pre-set ideas of how the night would go. Dana Bash, a CNN reporter covering election night, stated that she thought “Donald Trump will likely lose by a few points.” John King, another CNN reporter, countered with, “No doubt Clinton will make up this margin.”
It was the early hours of the morning when an upset was announced. After campaigning for a year, battling allegations about sexual assault and accusations of racist behavior, Trump was able to win some key swing states and was announced president.
The question many people were asking was raised by Brian Lutz, a sophomore: How did Trump pull off this upset? Lutz speculated upon his own question:
“The general population has grown tired of our government that never seems to get anything done. Trump has campaigned as someone who isn’t government and speaks to keep their socio-economic security and therefore is popular with the voting population.”
Brendan Sieber, a freshman, summarized his explanation:
“There are more Trump supporters that are silent about their support for him — possibly because they are embarrassed to be voting for a non-politician. Regardless of their reason for not being vocal with their support, it skewed early predictions of the outcome of this election.”
Trump spoke at 2:51 a.m. and addressed all of America as he claimed his role as the 45th president. He encouraged Americans to “come together as one united people” and he pledged to all citizens that he would be a “president for all Americans.”
On Jan. 20, Trump will be sworn in to office, and America will watch to see that he stays true to these claims.
