The Big Smoke’s Lead Communications Manager, David Clarke charted the 2024 Election Day emotional roller coaster as it unfolded in New York.
The last 105 days of political campaigning in the United States have been a wild and often tumultuous time. One week after the Republican National Convention, where we learned that Trump would be a Presidential nominee and had tapped Senator JD Vance as his running mate, Kamala Harris held her first Presidential campaign rally on July 23, 2024. Over the ensuing months, we saw the Harris campaign push forward the principles of uniting Americans and reaching across the aisles. Conversely, Trump’s campaign was fuelled by grievances and animosity, leveraging a darker tone.
For an inside look at the emotional roller coaster of Election Day 2024, we invite you to follow Lead Communications Manager David Clarke’s day.
8:03am Eastern Daylight Savings Time (EDST)
My alarm went off at 6:00am, and I immediately plugged into the podcasts I listen to every morning. I fell asleep last night before Kamala took the stage in Philadelphia for the final moment of her campaigning, so it was great to get caught up on that and the general feelings around the election via NPR’s “Up First” and The New York Times’ “The Daily”, and today’s special episode of “The Run-Up”. Strangely, after feeling a lot of nervous energy yesterday, I feel confident that the country may decisively defeat Trump and the MAGA movement tonight.
8:19am EDST on West 53rd Street in Manhattan
Mike F. said he feels anxious and optimistic. As a person from the southern part of the USA he is hopeful the election results will bring about a better economy for the country.
9:31am EDST at Judy Blume Travel Plaza in Wall Township, New Jersey
Sandra B. let me know she is cautiously optimistic about the election. She is hoping we elect the first female president of the United States. And she added, “Not because she is a female, but because she is for the people.”
1:38pm EDST Dennis Township, New Jersey
Cassandra G. feels a little nervous and a little optimistic, saying “it’s too close right now.” For the election itself she says she wants to see it be a clear and fair election. “I want it to be clear cut with a ‘this person lost and this person won, let’s call it a day.’” She is hopeful after this election cycle we can get back to an America where people can talk and understand we have different opinions.
5:27pm EDST on a Brooklyn-bound B train
Scrolling through LinkedIn, I saw a friend of mine who is running for Supreme Court in the state of Texas share this graphic. As someone who was raised in the Houston area, this blows my mind. The news media has been talking about how high turnout was during early voting, and this proves how engaged the country is in this election. This makes me hopeful that Harris will win as, traditionally, Democrats have dominated the early vote. This time around, Trump also pushed hard for his supporters to engage in early voting, so I remain cautiously optimistic.
6:59pm EDST Brooklyn, NY
The first round of polls are about to close, and my anxiety is definitely elevated. As I type this, Rachel Maddow has announced that the race in most of the states where polls closed at 7pm EDST are too early to call. Per NBC News, Trump is projected to win Kentucky (with only 8% of the votes tabulated) and Harris is projected to win Vermont (with 0% of the votes tabulated), giving Trump a projected 8 to 5 lead in the Electoral College.
7:57pm EDST Brooklyn, NY
A very consequential amount of polls are about to close. Realistically, it’ll still be another hour or so before those polls generate any telling results. That’s the perfect amount of time for the carbs I enjoyed and the half edible I ate to kick in and bring my anxiety down some. As I type this, commentators are saying lines to vote at some colleges are two to five hours long. The way the youth are turning out is really incredible.
8:15pm EDST Brooklyn, NY
This projection, especially considering he is projected to win by a margin of 20 points, floods me with joy. Also, maybe it’ll be a good omen for the rest of the night considering his opponent, Mark Robinson, called himself a “black Nazi”.
9:13pm EDST Brooklyn, NY
Things don’t feel good right now. The New York Times’ Live Presidential Forecast is eroding my confidence in the race. The commentators on MSNBC and CBS News are presenting confidence, but we’re also learning more and more about numerous bomb threats called in to many of the polling places in battleground states. Luckily, Oreo, Cheetos, Doritos, and Haribo are offering emotional support.
9:23pm EDST Brooklyn, NY
Sarah McBride has just been projected to win her race, making her the first openly transgender member of the US Congress! This is exhilarating!
10:18pm EDST Brooklyn, NY
My partner, who has been monitoring The New York Times predictions, just told us that Trump is now predicted to win Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. This is looking really bleak.
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10:44pm EDST Brooklyn, NY
Our friends who came over to watch the election results have all left. On the way out they were discussing needing to be alone to process what’s happening and needing to review their work calendar to see if they could work from home tomorrow. Spirits are low as we all ponder what our systems of government will look like under a second Trump presidency.
11:21pm EDST Brooklyn, NY
The Associated Press has called North Carolina for Trump. I had a lot of hope Harris would pull off an upset and win this state.
11:43pm EDST Brooklyn, NY
As a former Texan, Colin Allred losing to Ted Cruz was a bitter pill to swallow. However, Texas will be sending the first out LGBTQ member of Congress from the US South to Washington. So, there is some progress to celebrate.
November 6 12:28am EDST Brooklyn, NY
I have quietly been crying in bed watching the narrowest of margins narrow even more. Tha MAGA movement has an intense foothold, and it is astounding that the January 6th insurrection, the 34 felony charges, and on and on were not enough. But, The New York Times is now reporting that Harris has secured 210 Electoral Votes, which is closing the massive lead Trump had been maintaining. Hope isn’t lost, but it’s very bruised.
12:36am EDST Brooklyn, NY
Rachel Maddow just reported that Trump is projected to win Georgia, and my heart just sunk. Harris has to win Pennsylvania, and there’s a big batch of votes from Philadelphia County that we won’t know until later this morning.
12:39am EDST Brooklyn, NY
MSNBC is now projecting that the Republicans have successfully flipped the United States Senate. This is not good.
12:50am EDST Brooklyn, NY
The Harris campaign has told her supporters at Howard University that she won’t be speaking there tonight, and that she will address supporters during the day tomorrow. This kind of feels like when your professor, deflated, looks around before mumbling, “Class dismissed.” It also feels like we, as a nation, are being given permission to go to sleep and get some rest. Despite whatever we wanted, we all realistically knew that we wouldn’t have conclusive answers by this time.
1:09am EDST Brooklyn, NY
Around this time last cycle, Trump’s lead was smaller but Biden was losing. He hadn’t picked up the Blue Wall states. Nor had he won Pennsylvania. So, it’s not irrational to think Harris can still pick up Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. This is a nail biter of a race. My alarm will be going off in less than six hours, so I should try to sleep.
7:09am EDST Brooklyn, NY
The first thing I did as soon as I woke up was check The New York Times for updates I missed while sleeping. They show Trump as having won the election with 277 Electoral College votes. Their headline reads, “TRUMP STORMS BACK” with a subhead that reads “Stunning Return to Power After Dark and Defiant Campaign.” All I can say and think is “Oh my God.” I’m overwhelmed with concern about my own personal safety as an out gay man. I am overwhelmed with concerns about what this means for women, the trans members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and truly anyone who is not a cisgender, white, heterosexual male.
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How did this happen? How are we here again? As I type this I start crying. The Democrats lost the Senate. The guardrails are not in place to stop the extremities of the plans written out in Project 2025. I am emotionally crushed.
9:26am EDST Brooklyn, NY
As I put the finishing touches on this article, I recognise that just like in 2016, the dust has already begun to settle on the 2024 election cycle. Many in the USA went to bed knowing that the Republicans had flipped the Senate and woke up to the news that Trump had won the White House. Republicans have a solid lead in The House of Representatives, and it seems they’ll claim that chamber too. With all three branches of the United States falling under the control of Trump and the Republican party, many – including people within the Republican Party – are facing unprecedented uncertainty about what the future holds for the United States.
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Will Trump successfully ban abortion access in the country? Will Gender-Affirming Care be banned too? If they do a sweeping ban on Gender-Affirming Care, will that also affect hormone therapies for postmenopausal women and women experiencing menopause? Will sweeping bans on Gender-Affirming Care also take away hormone treatments for men experiencing testicular cancer, prostate cancer, and their access to prescriptions for Viagra and Cialsis? All of these fall into that broader category. Do these people know what they have sewn? Will LGBTQIA+ identities be labelled as domestic terrorists like they have been in Russia? Will we watch Netanyahu, with the support of the American government, wipe Palestine off the map? And will Trump end all aid and support to Ukraine and stand idly by as that country potentially falls to Russia? Will seeds of rebellion turn into revolution? There are just so many unknowns.
This post was originally published on here
