After Election Tuesday, we’re catching up with voters we talked to before the Election. One person we spoke with was Trump supporter in Lexington.
Trump’s win made Jacob Thayer feel like a kid experiencing his first crush.
"I feel like a middle schooler," Thayer says. "It’s exciting but a little nerve wracking--you’re not quite sure what’s going to happen next. I’m looking forward to seeing it all unfold."
Thayer is a second year law student at Washington and Lee in Lexington. He says the impact of the election was felt right away the next morning in his Constitutional Law class.
"Somebody came in with a 'Make American Great Again' hat on, so that got an instant laugh," Thayer says. "Some people didn’t come. Democrats weren’t prepared emotionally and mentally for this so it’s really showing its toll."
He doesn’t buy the criticism that a vote for Trump was a vote for bigotry. Even though his guy won, Thayer isn’t one to gloat.
"I will say it’s tough as a human to watch Hillary Clinton concede because that’s the end probably of her life’s goal. That’s tough as a human to see the end of the Clinton era," says Thayer.
And he thought Trump gave a gracious acceptance speech as well.
Another of the Virginians we talked to, is Christopher Rashad Green -- a former felon in Richmond who was able to vote for the first time in more than 20 years. The last time we heard from Green he was undecided, considering voting for a third-party candidate. On Tuesday, he cast his ballot for Hillary Clinton.
We met up at VCU’s campus, where Christopher Rashad Green works in the dining hall. He wanted to walk around outside, to listen to students who were protesting Donald Trump.
“The youth! They have all the energy," he says. "I’ve always said that, there’s a lot of knowledge and wisdom within ‘em. It just needs to be guided.”
The guidance he would give? To join together and keep moving.
“Through all the adversity, you just gotta keep moving. Can’t dwell on it," Rashad Green says. "I think that’s part of the mindset of most black people in this country. It’s tragedy, we hate it. But then, we can’t blame nobody but ourselves. I mean look at the turnout and all those lost votes. Remember when I talked about the wasting of votes? A vote not used is a wasted vote. And we left a lot on the table.”
When Rashad Green heard the results, he smothered his rising cynicism and redirected his thoughts to working harder.
“You know, my mother always told me you gotta have hope," he says. "You lose hope then you’re doomed. Always have a glimmer of hope. Even in my case, I was always able to have hope in the darkest of times.”
And for his co-worker who he knows voted for Trump? He says he’s willing to have that conversation, to try to understand the other side. Just not right away.
