President-elect Donald J. Trump won 312 electoral college votes beating Vice President Kamala Harris who won 226. The Republicans will control the Senate with 52 seats. Ballots are still being counted in House races.
Trump won all seven key states Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Many are looking to the House seats to see if the Democrats can shore up votes to counter the Senate.
President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign platform, Agenda 47 was almost identical to his in 2016 with a focus on the economy, the border and deregulation.
“He’s pro-life, or at least trying to protect a lot of the innocent children’s lives that are being born,” former TCC student Jeffrey Thomas said. “And closed, yeah, closed border, just immigrants can come in, properly with the right documents, and that they’re not coming in illegally.”
Trump ran for president for the third time and is the only president who is a convicted felon. Vice president-elect JD Vance who early on was not expected to be Trump’s vice president pick is known for being the author of Hillbilly Elegy with controversial quotes.
“Under President Trumps leadership, we’re never going to stop fighting for you, for your dreams, for the future of your children,” Vance said. “And after the greatest political comeback in American history, we’re going to lead the greatest economic comeback in American history under Donald Trump’s leadership.”
Democrat and Independent voters are concerned about the first 100 days of a Trump presidency especially about a woman’s right to choose, LGBTQIA+ issues, immigration, the economy and the environment.
People are contemplating what the next four years means for all Americans and what part they can play. NE student Ash Martinez said prior to the election she was busy with school, so she didn’t do a lot of research because she knew how she was voting but decided to go back after the results and look at some of the issues more closely.
“It’s unfortunate to see that our country, and what’s going to happen with women’s rights and LGBTQ rights and the dangers that we’ve been put into,” she said.
Tarrant County continued to stay red for the presidential vote but turned blue for the senatorial race. Colin Allred won Tarrant with 48.87% to Ted Cruz’s 48.72%. Tarrant County Commissioner Tim O’Hare said on election day that early voting and election day voting turnout use to be more predictable.
“There was a time, not all that long ago, where Election Day outnumbered early voting by a pretty significant margin.” O’Hare said. “It just doesn’t anymore.”
According to the Tarrant County Election Administration of the almost 1.3 million registered voters, 826,039 of them voted. That’s only 63.59% of eligible voters. Tarrant County’s race for Sheriff was one that many kept an eye on because of the controversy that’s surrounding the deaths in Sheriff Bill Waybourn’s jail.
On election night Jake Davis, fundraising chair for the Democratic Party, spoke about the importance of local races.
“The biggest thing are the jail deaths,” Davis said. “Nobody should die on the state’s watch, and we in America have a right to a speedy and expeditious trial, and unfortunately, under the GOP watch, that hasn’t been happening.”
Davis emphasized the importance of young people becoming more involved in politics regardless of which party they vote for.
“You’ve got to work hard to find people to elect and to unseat those people that you don’t agree,” Davis said. “And everybody, Democrat, Republican, Independent, needs to be held accountable.”
Davis, a member of the LGBTQIA+ community said that while he voted for Colin Allred that he disagreed with his anti-trans rhetoric.
“I do understand there are some centrist Democrats and centrist Republicans who are tired of Trumpism, who are tired of “MAGA”-ism, who are tired of Ted Cruz,” Davis said. “And so, he is maybe appealing to those folks to kind of get them to swing to his side.”
With many concerned about election security and fraud and potential Jan. 6th events, Allred reminded Texans about true patriotism.
“It shouldn’t be remarkable to have to admit defeat,” he said. “You can’t just be a patriot when your side wins. Tonight, we didn’t win, but we will continue to be patriots.”
Alex Hoben, Ash Petrie, Cheyenne Shawn, and Lauren Harper Contributed to this story.
