(Bloomberg) -- An hour after polls closed in North Carolina on Tuesday night, Democrats in the downtown Raleigh Marriott described competing emotions as they swayed under arches of blue balloons to the Black Eyed Peas playing in the background.
“I got a feeling...that tonight’s gonna be a good night.”
And at first it was. A cheer went up when a giant screen showing NBC called the governor’s race for Democrat Josh Stein, who easily beat Mark Robinson after the Republican candidate become embroiled in scandals over antisemitic, racist and sexist language.
But even then, one Democrat whispered that he was nervous being in that ballroom. It was the same place the state party had watched the 2016 election, expecting to celebrate Democrat Hillary Clinton becoming the first female president before her crushing loss to Donald Trump.
It was always going to be an uphill battle for Kamala Harris to beat Trump in North Carolina, but the Democratic volunteers knocking doors on Election Day said they didn’t want to wake up on Wednesday thinking they could have done more. Their efforts in many ways paid off — Democrats won key races including attorney general and statehouse seats. But just before midnight, when North Carolina was the first swing state to be called for Trump, clusters of people headed for the lobby where it was easier to talk in hushed voices.
“There’s so much work that went into the election and there’s so much on the line,” said Veronica Butcher, 42, a public budget development analyst. While Butcher was excited about state races, her main feeling was desperation. “It’s hard to watch them calling NC for Trump.”
Across the key states that decided the election, similar emotions played out at Democratic watch parties from Atlanta to Detroit to Las Vegas as it became clear that Trump was marching toward victory. A victory that was buoyed by concern over the economy, immigration and foreign policy, and by stripping away voters from traditionally Democratic stronghold including union workers, immigrants, people of color and Muslim Americans.
By contrast, Republicans went through their own mood swings — but in their cases it was from nervousness to jubilation as race after race went in their favor. By Wednesday afternoon Trump had swept five of the seven swing states. While Arizona and Nevada have yet to be called, on Thursday Trump was leading in both of them. Republicans took control of the US Senate and stand to keep their majority in the House.
The tension was still thick at the Georgia Republican Party’s watch party in Atlanta on Tuesday night.
Phil Kent, a Republican consultant, took comfort in Trump’s seeming outperformance in tiny Milledgeville in central Georgia. Known as the longtime home of late Southern writer Flannery O’Connor, Milledgeville and surrounding Baldwin County flipped from Democrat in 2020 to Republican this year, after typically supporting Democratic nominees in the past 20 years. African Americans are a significant presence there, with about 42% of the local population.
In the past, “Democrats have carried Baldwin County, and it’s flipping red. That’s significant,” Kent suggested. Not long after Trump supporters dressed in suits and ties and red MAGA caps, or elegant crimson dresses, erupted as news broke over Fox News that Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz had bested his Democratic rival Colin Allred.
Michigan Republican Party’s election party was also giddy when Pete Hoekstra, party chair, stood onstage that night and pointed to the Fox News ticker showing Trump beating Harris.
“Look at these numbers!” Hoekstra shouted late Tuesday night to several hundred people packed in a ballroom in suburban Detroit. “We haven’t won yet, but it’s headed in the right direction!”
Geoff Booth, a union autoworker at Ford Motor Co.’s Bronco SUV plant west of Detroit, is in many ways emblematic of the Democratic party’s struggles.
Booth, 39, blames inflation during Joe Biden’s presidency for squeezing his household budget and said he and his live-in girlfriend feel that they can’t afford to raise a child, let alone the large family his union grandfather grew up in.
“It makes it hard to raise a family,” Booth said, noting that instead of children, “we have three dogs.”
Harris had outraised Trump during her 107-day campaign, but she struggled to convince voters that her policies were different to Biden’s, even as exit polls displayed dissatisfaction among large swathes of the electorate over the direction of the country. Critically Trump’s promises to cut taxes, revive manufacturing, deport migrants and end foreign wars resonated with key Democratic constituencies.
In Arizona, Trump won people like Will Graham, a Black man in Phoenix who voted for Clinton in 2016. “The cost of living across the board is too much,” said Graham. But Trump resonated with Graham beyond policy, highlighting Black voters’ frustration with the Democratic party. “I’ve always been told, ‘be a leader not a follower,’” he said. “Because I’m Black I should vote Democrat, that’s being a follower not a leader.”
Harris also lost some progressive voters like Jennifer Linzy over the vice president’s stance on Israel’s war with Hamas. Linzy, 39, left a Phoenix polling station on Tuesday saying she only voted down ballot races. “This is the first time I’ve abstained in my entire adult life in a presidential election,” said Linzy. While abortion is an important issue for her, Israel’s war in Gaza and the death of Palestinian civilians was her primary issue. “I made the decision this morning,” said Linzy.
--With assistance from Michael Sasso, David Welch, Brett Pulley, Amanda Albright and Madlin Mekelburg.
(Updates with details on Republican wins)
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