For Washoe Democrats — “Dark Night for America”
Tonight, the Washoe County Democratic Party, along with Democrat supporters, voters, and volunteers anxiously awaited the results of the 2016 Presidential Election at the Grand Sierra Resorts — results that would ultimately disappoint them.
The “Hillary For Nevada Election Night Watch Party” started at 5:30 pm, but it was not until 7:30 p.m. that the room started to fill with people of all ages, gender, and ethnicities.
Reno resident, Brooke Maylath, Organizer and President of the transgender ALIAS group, noted a difference in this year’s campaign.
“This one has been exceptionally vicious and has had an utter lack of discussion of policy and what direction either candidate is really going to take the country,” Maylath said. “It has all been about character assassination and nothing but. It is not a Presidential type of campaign like I have ever seen, and I don’t think we have seen anything like this since 1840.”
Not everyone who attended this event supported Hillary Clinton from the start.
Matthew Ebert, 46 and a full time student at UNR, was an active Bernie Sanders supporter who even attended the National Convention in Las Vegas. “I was unaffiliated with a political party for 25 years, but registered as a Democrat to vote for Bernie Sanders,” he said.
When asked, how it was from switching from supporting Bernie Sanders to supporting Hillary Clinton.
“Well I wasn’t a Bernie pro or a Hillary hater, as they call them. Hillary Clinton has voted about 93% with Bernie Sanders in the Senate…ultimately, I am not just voting for a character or an individual, I am voting for ideas that are embodied in a platform and the Democratic Party embodies the ideals that I share.”
As more projections were announced favoring Trump over Clinton, the atmosphere in the room changed. A sense of stress, disbelief, and sadness grew.
First time voter, 18-year-old Alejandra Ezekiel, said, “I never thought I would ever live to see the racism, sexism, and rhetoric we are seeing tonight. It feels unreal, my heart is broken”
At 9:33 p.m. everyone in the room is excited to see Nevada turn blue.
Hours later the scenario changed dramatically as the 2016 Presidential Election came to an end. At 11:17 p.m. the electoral map showed Trump leads with 247 compared to Clinton 215. Everyone in the room was devastated at what they call “a very, very dark night for America.”
