Donald Trump’s election as the 45th president of the United States is an underdog story that left many people with mixed emotions Wednesday. While for some Trump’s election will “make America great again,” there are countless others who are feeling grief, anger and fear.

Shock

People across Ohio reported that they woke up Wednesday in disbelief as they came to realize Trump had won enough of the electoral college votes to win the presidency.

“I was extremely shocked about the election results when I saw them this morning at around 9:15 a.m.,” said 26-year-old Kenneth Franz Wednesday morning in Wilmington. “Mr. Trump is now president and I’m a bit on the side of caution as to how he will actually be in office.”

“To put plainly, the election was, for myself and most watching, a shock. No one thought that Trump supporters would come out in droves to throw their hat in for him, but they did. The polls told their story and I think we all envisioned something different than what we witnessed last night,” said Derek Reed, a 30-year-old computer scientist from Yellow Springs.

“I woke up around 2:30 a.m. and checked my phone. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” said 34-year-old Kristen Neal, a small business owner who lives in Goshen, Ohio.

Rural vote

“Were so many Americans who never voted before waiting out there in the boonies of America for just the right guy to put this country back on track?” asked Mandelyn Royal, a 34-year-old greenhouse manager from Goshen.

Trump took about 70 percent of the votes in every rural Ohio county.

“I don’t think anyone had considered the turnout for the rural vote, which made all the difference for Trump,” said Dawn Mood, a 52-year-old catalog coordinator from Milford. “The programs that Hillary promised to develop and continue developing don’t seem as pertinent to those who live in rural areas. It looks like the states which went to Hillary are mostly more metropolitan where the issues would be more visible.” 

Fear

Reed, the computer scientist from Yellow Springs, said Trump’s campaign spoke to all the fed-up “average Joes” and weaved a fearful narrative.

And now people are wondering how Trump is going to hold up those narratives now that he is elected to office.

“Many things have been said in this campaign for presidency by both parties and now we will see if he will deliver on those promises,” said Franz, the Wilmington man who said he is leaning on the side of caution on how Trump will act in office. Franz said he’s scared about a few things that Trump has said and is concerned about the people of this nation who have said similar things like Trump.

“As for his attitude toward women: not cool, man. Even just to a buddy you don’t say things like that about women or anyone in general,” said Franz. “Have respect and it will be given in return. No respect means you’ll have an upset nation at you…and it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t care what any of us say: no respect, no more presidency.”

Trump’s statements and attitudes toward women escalated just weeks before the election. In a tape recording, Trump bragged about groping women. Many lawsuits have been filed against Trump for various reasons, with more than a dozen women saying that he allegedly sexually assaulted them.

Republican politicians and candidates disavowed Trump’s nomination, including U.S. Sen. Rob Portman and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who said he has long held concerns about Trump that go well beyond his temperament.

On the Record-Herald’s Facebook page, Beth Moser, a 39-year-old mortician from Bloomingburg, said,“It’s a sad day when someone can threaten, belittle others, lies about nearly everything and have zero political knowledge is able to manipulate so many people into thinking he is a great person.”

Neal, the small business owner from Goshen, said she started to see Trump taking the lead in the early hours of Wednesday morning and didn’t like what she saw.

“I walked out to the living room and I just stood there and started to cry,” said Neal. Her fiance asked her why she was crying. “I told him it was because I was scared. Donald Trump is an insult to women, to the environment, and to immigrants.”

Blame

“The polls told their story and I think we all envisioned something different than what we witnessed last night,” Reed said. “The DNC holds most if not all blame, the collusion we saw in email traffic is proof. Should have put in Bernie and we all could have woken up today like we hadn’t been on an bender for the last two years.”

“Who do I blame for this misstep in democracy? I don’t actually blame the Trump supporters. They’re merely a demographic of people who feel just as disenfranchised as I do,” said Neal. “No, I blame the DNC and the Clinton campaign. The biggest thing for me that came out of the Wikileaks emails is how Bernie Sanders was undermined by his own party. I felt it had been made pretty clear by Americans of both parties that our society is fed up with the status quo.”

And Neal said the Republicans listened better than the Democrats did and bent to the will of its constituents.

“Hilary Clinton should have listened to hers and not her ego that told her that she was a better choice than Senator Sanders. The DNC should have been brave enough to see that their constituents wanted Bernie and not Hillary. This is what they got wrong,” Neal said.

Make America great again

Pamela Wilson, a 33-year-old homemaker from Washington Court House, said over Facebook Wednesday that she is “Absolutely happy. Proud to call this man my president! We finally have a president that is actually for making America great again.”

But Franz, the man who lives in Wilmington and is scared about some of the things Trump has said, is doubtful that Trump will be able to bring jobs back. Wilmington’s economy was particularly hard hit in 2008 when more than 8,000 local jobs were cut when DHL moved its international shipping hub to Kentucky.

“The point I’m trying to make about our jobs being in America and Mr. Trump telling us he will bring them back is, no he won’t. There is really only one thing a man such as himself loves more than life itself, and that’s money. If he can make money doing anything, he will. And generally, it’s only for his own benefit,” said Franz.

“The people of America have made their kool-aid,” Moser, the mortician from Bloomingburg, said. “Now let’s not hear them complain when they don’t like its taste and outcome. Pathetic indeed.”