The night started on a high, as Brooklyn’s Democrats united to show their support for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who by exit poll results, was shown to be the overall winner of the presidential race.
However, as the night slowly progressed, the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats and New Kings Democrats were taken by surprise as Trump swept up the race, winning state-by-state.
Newly elected Assemblyman of the 44th District, Robert Carroll, was very concerned as he saw Clinton’s path to the white house narrowing, “I care much more about the presidential race. Right now Donald Trump is winning and that is very concerning.”
Carroll went on to embody the feeling of Clinton supporters last night by adding, “I am excited to represent the people of my district but right now my thoughts are with Hillary. I am very, very worried about what I’m seeing.”
The atmosphere clearly took a change for the worse once President Trump won the key battleground state of Ohio. The big win was announced early on in the night, and gave the billionaire 18 more electoral votes. Ohio historically has been the state to predict the presidential winner since the 1940s, only once ever siding incorrectly which happened back in 1960 when Ohio was won by Nixon instead of Kennedy.
No president has ever won without Ohio and once Trump was announced as the winner of the state that is when his path to the White House became that much more realistic.
As the night wore on Trump ended up winning other key states, in particular Florida which gave him a total of 29 electoral college votes to put him in a significant lead over Clinton. Florida has traditionally been a swing state that in the past two elections leaned Democrat but went red for this election.
Just around 1:30 a.m., top Clinton aides appeared in front of the thousands of Clinton supporters crowded into the Jacob Javits Center in midtown to tell them to go home and rest as the race was far from over. They were also told that Mrs. Clinton would not be making a speech to them that night.
Some Democrats might argue that Clinton lacked in energizing the millennial vote, those new voters who were original supporters of Bernie Sanders.
Eric Munroe, a Brooklyn native, expressed this sentiment while watching the election play out, “ I want Hillary to win, but I didn’t vote. I can’t trust her. She hid emails from us, what else could she hide from the American people.”
Munroe, just became eligible to vote in 2012, but felt this election that the Sanders should have been the Democratic nominee. “He focused on the problems within the country which would have made us strong. He came from poverty like me and that made him relatable,” said Munroe.
In the end, the 70-year-old never made a concession speech instead opting to call Trump and congratulate him over the phone privately. The president-elect acknowledged Clinton’s sign of defeat by thanking her during his official speech saying that she “fought very hard” and thanked her for her years of service to the country.
The final numbers were 276 electoral votes for Trump and 216 for Clinton. You need to receive 270 Electoral College votes in order to win the U.S. Presidency.
Trump, as 45th President of the United States will be sworn in on Friday, January 20, 2017, at which point he will move into the White House and begin his four-year term as Commander-in-Chief.
