Republicans win nationally while conservative tide shifts in Kansas
Donald Trump speaks at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C.
November 9, 2016
The election last night caused some to cheer, some to cry and many to watch their television screens in surprise. This year, both the nation and the state of Kansas saw an overturn in power.
In the national election, Republican Donald Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the race to the White House.
An article on RealClearPolitics showed that the majority of polls had Clinton winning. However, the outcome of last night told a different story.
Trump came out on top with the electoral college, winning 279 electoral votes with Clinton receiving 229. A New York Times article reported Clinton winning the popular vote with 59,600,327 votes (47.7 percent) to Trump’s 59,389,590 votes (47.5 percent).
Senior Noah Mercer, Young Democrats Club president, spent part of the evening watching results roll in with other club members.
“It’s over I guess,” he said. “I’m definitely feeling some anger. Just how people have changed their mind in the very last minutes because all the polls had her [Hillary Clinton] winning. So it was definitely a very big upset of how people thought they were going to vote.”
Sophomore Karenna Peterson, another Clinton supporter, was also mourning the results.
“I feel like they haven’t really sunk in yet because I can’t even imagine Donald Trump as our president. At all,” she said. “I knew that he won last night, but it took me until I woke up to actually realize that this guy is going to be the leader of our country for the next four to eight years. Which is terrifying because he’s so ignorant. He’s so ignorant, and he sounds so uneducated whenever he’s talking. And it’s just really disappointing.”
Others were pleased with the results.
“I think it went pretty good,” sophomore Rachel Parsons said. “I think it went pretty good. I’m honestly happy with it. I mean, I think both the candidates weren’t that great, but I guess I agree with most of what Donald Trump says.”
Meanwhile, power is shifting in the Kansas Legislature. Conservative Republicans faced increasing pressure for supporting Gov. Sam Brownback’s policies, and Democrats and moderate Republicans gained seats in the Senate and House. That could return the Legislature to the days of the Sebelius and Parkinson administrations when a coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats could band together to push through legislation.
In an article from the Topeka Capital-Journal, Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley said: “Both houses will be more moderate. You’ve got a lot of Republican candidates who are talking about repealing the governor’s legislative legacy.”
“Locally, we did very well,” teacher Jay Hundley said. “So I’m happy about locally. We might get a little help for our economy here in Kansas. And for schools.”
Staffers Kira Auchenbach and Lourdes Kalusha-Aguirre contributed to this report.
