On Tuesday night, Trump secured the presidential nomination with 279 Electoral College votes to Hillary Clinton’s 228 in an election that surprised many in the nation.
Trump’s presidential victory was met with both jubilations and frustrations from residents across the Santa Clarita Valley and across the state of California Wednesday.
In Santa Clarita, the reactions to the results were passionate in support of the president-elect and against him.
Maggie Artinian, a student at COC, said she experienced one emotion when the results were announced: surprise.
“I was shocked to the difference in numbers to the electoral college with how big of a gap it was,” Artinian said. “I thought it would be a lot closer and didn’t expect him to jump ahead.”
Erin Watson, an independent voter who leans more toward the conservative side, could not stand either candidate.
“I’m very unhappy with how it turned out, but I also think that if social media didn’t play such a big factor in the election then it might have had different results,” Watson said.
Len and Pam from Valencia, who asked for their last name not be used, were completely shocked and appalled with the results.
“If you voted for Trump, you disrespected your mother, your wife, your daughter, your sister, your grandchildren,” Len said. “It’s really unbelievable.”
Pam agreed and said she believes Trump is “too rough” of an individual to be representing the country. She was hoping last night would have marked the first time a woman was elected president of the United States.
“She might not be perfect, but I think it was time we had a woman president,” she said.
On the other side of the spectrum, Elizabeth Stanfill and her mother Agripina Stanfill could not be happier with the election results.
“I had no doubt that he was going to win,” Elizabeth Stanfill said.
Elizabeth Stanfill and her mother, Agripina Stanfill, an immigrant from the Philippines, both expressed their happiness that there would be “no more corruption in government.”
“I’m grateful that the Clintons are not participating in politics anymore,” Elizabeth Stanfill said. “I mean there’s a lot of evidence against them or else the FBI wouldn’t be investigating them.”
The sentiment was similar with Michael LaRue, who is both hopeful and optimistic for Trump’s presidency.
“It was necessary for him to win to put an end to the corporation we saw in the final days of this campaign,” LaRue said.
In regards to the inaccurate predictions in the elections polls, LaRue claimed the media had “its own agenda” and was ignoring grass roots people in order to sway the public.
“Are you really using your own critical thinking skills or are you just listening to what the media tells you or what your liberal professor told you?” he said.
School response
Across the state, students at universities and high schools protested the results with walkouts, marches, chants and social media posts.
At University of California, Los Angles, nearly 2,000 people protested the results of the election early Wednesday morning when they marched from UCLA’s campus through Westwood and to Wilshire Boulevard, according to The Daily Bruin.
Students at the university burned a Trump piñata and chanted “F*** Donald Trump” and “Not my president” through the streets. The protest continued for a few hours until it peacefully dispersed around 4 a.m.
Similar reactions were seen at University of California, Santa Barbara, University of California, Berkley and San Jose State.
The response was not nearly as zealous in the Santa Clarita Valley, which houses three colleges: California Institute of the Arts, The Master’s University and College of the Canyons.
Representatives from COC, The Master’s University and CalArts, all said it was a quiet day on campus among students and staff.
At The Master’s University there was a slight influx in people wearing the Trump campaign’s signature red “Make America Great Again” baseball hats, according to Robert Jensen, The Master’s University’s digital marketing manager.
Despite the response on both sides of the Trump election news, most of Santa Clarita’s residents expressed their plans to give Trump a chance in office.
“I’m trying to stay positive; it is what it is and it’s only four years,” Watson said. “I do think that he can make some changes that a politician could not, but I’m just trying to stay positive.”
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