NEW YORK — They came expecting a victory, and left without even the dignity of a personal address from their defeated champion.
Hillary Clinton supporters and campaign volunteers came from all over — from California, from Texas, from Florida — Tuesday evening to gather inside the Javits Center in New York City for an Election Day rally featuring addresses from key Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.
The evening began joyfully enough, with Clinton supporters dancing and cheering along to early election results as they were displayed on a massive screen hanging above the arena. But as the night wore on, and as GOP nominee Donald Trump claimed one electoral victory after another, the mood in the glass ceiling’d arena turned grim.
“Absolute disbelief,” one supporter from New York, Dehmar, told the Washington Examiner. “I don’t think most of us here even considered this to be a possibility. I don’t want to say it was in the bag, but I don’t think any of us could imagine what a world would be like with Donald Trump as our president.”
“I’m just not ready to accept Donald Trump as my president,” she added in response to being asked if she believed Clinton still had a chance to win. “Just dumbfounded. How is this even possible? Honestly, I think this is a direct reaction to having Obama as our president, and I think that non-college white males said, ‘No way.'”
Another Clinton campaign volunteer, Matt from California, described the mood in the arena as “disappointment,” “scared” and “hopeful that she might run the table on the last states.”
“There will be anger and division in this country that we haven’t seen since the civil war,” he said.
The Californian volunteer added, “I don’t understand it because I spent a lot of time campaigning for Hillary in Florida, Nevada, California … when I went to Florida, I saw a lot of enthusiasm for her among a lot of different groups. There was a ground team that was getting them out to vote and Trump had nothing. So how do you explain that? That one candidate has a huge ground game and early voting and people turning out and the other candidate wins?”
At that point in the evening, Trump had already captured two key battleground states: North Carolina and Ohio.
Felipe Gutierrez, who sits on the Democratic nominee’s National Finance Committee, told the Examiner. “If we don’t win Michigan, we don’t win. I think we’ve done all that we can, do and we hope for the best outcome.”
“It’s disappointing that [Americans] haven’t gone out and voted,” he sighed.
Several other despondent-looking Clinton supporters declined to comment, with a few explaining sadly that they didn’t feel like talking. One campaign volunteer would only say of the election, “It’s too much.”
Many supporters were also seen crying, as friends and family consoled them with long hugs. By midnight, the trickle of rally-goers running from the bleachers to the exits had turned into a steady stream. By 1:00 a.m. Eastern Time, the once-packed arena was beginning to empty out.
And then the Associated Press called Pennsylvania for Trump. It was then that it became clear Clinton didn’t have a path to the White House, and the mood in the Javits Center turned quickly to outright despair.
The massive screen that once displayed live election coverage cut to a still image of the Clinton campaign logo and it remained that way for the next 15 minutes as event organizers pumped pop music into the arena. For attendees not already checking their phones for election results, the rally turned into a total media blackout.
Then word got out that Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, would make a personal stop at the Javits Center. Eager to hear what he had to say, the remaining supporters closed around the arena stage and waited for his arrival.
Podesta showed up at around 2:00 a.m Eastern Time, and promised his dwindled audience that the campaign would fight on until the last vote was counted.
“They’re still counting votes. Every vote should count,” Podesta said to cheers. “Several states are too close to call. So we’re not going to have anything more to say tonight.”
He then encouraged the Democratic nominee’s supporters to go home and get some sleep, before ending with a simple, “Goodnight!”
His brief remarks gave a small spark of life to a crowd that had just moments before looked utterly defeated. Smiles returned and some Clinton supporters found themselves leaving the Javits Center with the smallest glimmer of hope.
“I’m glad they’re fighting for every vote. That’s what we’re all about. You know, everyone gets one person, one vote. And I’m glad they’re going to look at things,” one Florida supporters, Susan, told the Examiner.
Another supporter, Jeffery from New York, said Podesta’s announcement lifted the mood, but he added, “I think everybody is afraid for the worst here.”
“I don’t think anybody wants to make any sort of presumption, make a call yet. And I think we’re all just hopeful and hoping for the best,” he added, describing the mood in the arena as “somber.”
“It’s really sad tonight. I think it’s more just disappointing more than anything,” the New Yorker said.
Sarah, another Clinton supporter hailing from the Empire State, described the mood as “exhausting, “dour” and “sad.” Still, she added, “I have high hopes that maybe she’ll pull through. It seems like it’s borderline a miracle at this point. I truly have no idea [what happened].”
She added of the evening’s events as they unfolded, “At a certain point, there were people sobbing all around me. It just became a big bummer and it was so fun at the beginning of it.”
Minutes after Podesta left the Javitz Center, and as supporters continued to stream out of the arena and into the crisp New York morning, Clinton conceded the election to Trump in a private phone call.
For the volunteers who spent hours and days supporting Clinton’s presidential campaign, and for those who were seen weeping Tuesday for her loss, news of their nominee’s surrender came either from CNN, NBC News or the GOP president himself.
“I’ve just received a call from Secretary Clinton. She congratulated us. It’s about us. On our victory, and I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign,” Trump said at his victory speech early Wednesday morning. “I mean, she fought very hard. Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.”
“I mean that very sincerely. Now it is time for America to bind the wounds of division, have to get together. To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people,” Trump added
Spokespersons for the Clinton campaign did not respond to the Examiner’s request for comment, remaining true to form right until the bitter end.
