The sky was gloomy, but not the mood of Republicans enjoying a post-election bite in Fargo, N.D., Wednesday morning.
“Well, the guy I voted for won,” Harold Ness proclaimed outside The Shack on Broadway, a popular breakfast spot in the city. His “I voted” sticker still affixed to his jacket because he forgot it was there.
Ness was about to join three other retirees — the “league of extinguished, I mean, distinguished gentlemen,” he quipped — at the eatery, where Donald Trump’s triumphant reclaiming of the presidency, only hours before, was sure to be a topic of conversation, he said.
He didn’t know which presidential candidate earned all of their votes, but was fairly confident the Republican nominee was their preferred choice, rather than Democrat Kamala Harris.
“They say great minds think alike.”
In North Dakota, a neighbour to Manitoba’s south, voters happy with the outcome of the presidential race were easy to find.
Glenn Wittenberg said he felt the country was “going in the wrong direction” under President Joe Biden.
Wittenberg felt the Democratic president didn’t do enough to tame inflation.
“I’m retired, my dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to,” he said.
In this election, Trump’s margins of victory grew in some parts of rural America, and the same was true in North Dakota, one of the reddest states in the country.
Trump earned 67 per cent of the popular vote in North Dakota, a higher percentage than the 65 per cent in the 2020 election and the 64 per cent he earned in the 2016 vote.
Russel Stabler attributed Trump’s success to his policies.
“They’re very impressed with the way he does things,” said Stabler, an air force veteran.
“He doesn’t always say the right thing,” he added, a nod to Trump’s inflammatory and dark rhetoric, “but his intentions and everything else are good.”
Trouble sleeping
At a downtown coffee shop, Jordan Falcon was sipping his drink, resigned to an election result he didn’t want.
“I had a hard time sleeping last night,” he said, unsure where a second Trump presidency may lead.
He recalled how Trump’s been accused of inciting the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“It seems like running someone again that was so anti the democratic process last time and then having them win it legitimately … is just a bit disconcerting.”
Jim Carroll, another patron of Atomic Coffee, is one of the voters the Harris campaign wound up losing. The businessman, who splits his time between Minnesota and Florida, supported Biden in the 2020 election, and has donated to other Democratic campaigns in the past.
This time around, he voted for Trump.
“I think the country needed a change of direction with the economy, with foreign policy,” Carroll said.
Outside The Shack, Nancy Garvey said the final result is tough to swallow because it demonstrates “the majority of the population is accepting things that I think are unacceptable.”
“His behaviour, his morals, the rhetoric we hear, it’s not OK.”
Once Trump was on the verge of being declared the victor in the early-morning hours Wednesday, Garvey started listening to an audiobook called Unshakable Hope, which reminds Christians there is hope in the face of every challenge.
“And our hope is in something greater than today,” she said, referencing her belief system.
Larry Wild, who also voted for Harris, wouldn’t let the gloomy skies above Fargo cloud his outlook.
“Even though we couldn’t see it, the sun came up this morning,” he said, “and it’ll come up tomorrow morning and we’ll be alright.”
The day after Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris to claim the presidency for the second time, those who voted for him in Fargo, N.D., were feeling optimistic. And at least one Democrat refused to give in to pessimism, noting the sun came despite Trump’s victory.