Well, it’s been about 48 hours since the first votes were cast on Election Day, and it feels like we’ve been through several political lifetimes since then.
Before the aura of that day and night begins to fade, I wanted to share a few sketches from my reporter’s notebook that might help give some additional contour as the storylines that will define our historical memory of this election begin to take hold.
I spent election night in Chandler at BKD’s Backyard Lounge, speaking to Republican voters. Many of them were there for the official watch party being hosted by Kelly Cooper, who’s running for congress against Democrat Greg Stanton. A race that, as we speak this morning, has not been called.
And if you’re watching the news or reading the newspaper today, and seeing endless headlines about Trump’s clear, decisive victory — that is not what the voters I spoke to that night thought was about to happen.
The reason I wanted to share this is because the sentiments of these and other voters I spoke to were pretty much the exact same thing I remember Joe Biden supporters expressing on Election Night four years ago.
They came into the night cautiously optimistic, then watched Trump start to rack up some early electoral vote wins. A few hours in, they felt gripped with this fear that the Trump had come up with some kind of last-minute strategy to stage a remarkable comeback.
That, of course, came to be known as the so-called “red mirage," but I got the sense that the Trump supporters at BKD on Tuesday night really thought Trump’s lead was going to evaporate. And if you’re somebody who’s looking at the results of the presidential election, and wondering if you have anything in common with the other side — well, I think there’s a decent chance that you’ve both experienced the exact same feelings on election night. A sense of utter dread that the reality you thought you were living in is a mirage.
Next I’d like to introduce you to Nicholas. Nicholas has a biography that’s different from any other Trump supporter I’ve ever met. He served in the Peace Corps. And if you’re hearing that and thinking, “I would’ve assumed that the Peace Corps was all hardcore lefties," Nicholas says, you are correct!
Nicholas told me he’s not strictly a Republican, he voted for Barack Obama in 2008. But he’s a Trump supporter now, largely because of Trump’s stance on immigration, and he told me that his time in the Peace Corps is a big reason for that.
"The Peace Corps teaches you - you are supposed to capacitate or train or build up the folks you’re working with - it’s sustainability. It’s best when it’s done there. Now I meet a lot of folks who are coming up here because the border’s open. So it’s like my service was wasted," Nicholas said.
As I listen to all the conversations the last day or so about the unexpected constituencies that voted for Donald Trump - groups that a lot of people would’ve assumed would vote for Democrats - I keep thinking back to that conversation with Nicholas.
KJZZ political correspondent Camryn Sanchez, who was also out in the field that night and joined The Show to discuss.
Full conversation
SAM DINGMAN: So where were you on election night?
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: I was at the Maricopa County Republican Committee headquarters also in Chandler. And I got to tell you, my experience was pretty much the opposite of that. I was at a party where people were super excited the entire night through and very, very confident.
DINGMAN: Yes. Well, to start, you have a bunch of amazing stories from that night. I wanted to start by asking you to explain the story behind a text you sent me that said, “there are live snakes here.”
SANCHEZ: Yeah, I don't know why. And I wish I did. But for some reason there were a few live snakes, I believe they were pythons. They were pets, obviously of the people, they weren't just rogue snakes at the event. And I, I got to pet one, and then the owner of that snake was like, “do you wanna wear the snake?” And I was like, OK so I had it around my neck for a while. But yeah, that was just a fun, fun little detail.
DINGMAN: Now, the snakes, it sounds like were just sort of adornments, but there were also some prayers as I understand it. Tell me about some of the other scenes that really stuck with you.
SANCHEZ: So at this event, they were watching the results come in on these TV screens set up around the room, and it was all playing this conservative talk show. It's called “The Benny Show.” And so the guy on that screen who was sort of talking about election night was very, very much a hype man.
You know, he was really excited and he was yelling, and he wanted them to call the race before any of the swing states except for North Carolina had been called. He was like, “this is over, it's red wave,” and you know, it looks like it's going to be. But everyone in the room was pretty, pretty gung ho.
And I even had someone be like, they should call Pennsylvania now before the votes had come in. And they were saying that the media didn't have the guts to do it basically. And someone turned to me and was like, “call Pennsylvania.” And I was like, “I can't, I can't, it's not my power.”
DINGMAN: Well, so that's the story of how KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez was put in a position to, asked to, to call Pennsylvania for President Trump. What, what would you say, you know, if you compare the experience you had to, to the one that I had, it seems like it was a pretty different environment there.
It doesn't seem like there was a lot of doubt in the room that things were going to go President Trump's way.
SANCHEZ: I would say that was the vibe of the room. But when I, when I spoke to people individually, I did ask about election fraud, OK, because it's Maricopa County Republicans. Of course, it was like, where else, you know, is there going to be all the concern about election integrity?
And when I was speaking to people one on one, they were like, oh yeah, you know, there, there isn't any election integrity. One person told me he has exactly “zero confidence.” That was the quote, “zero confidence” in our elections. That everything is fraudulent and stolen and rigged against us. And, somehow that's reconciled with the, the confidence and the happiness and the energy of that night.
And like you mentioned, there was a prayer, you know, this is more towards the end of the night when it really did seem obvious that Trump was winning and everyone sort of threw their hands up. And this one guy was yelling and saying, “thank you, you know, the blood of Jesus and this is what we wanted.”
And I've had some avid Trump supporters, not at that event in particular, but at the rallies I've attended and just this whole campaign cycle telling me that, you know, they believe that Trump actually is the chosen, chosen by God.
DINGMAN: Well, I have to say that's so interesting because at BKD’s Backyard Lounge, where I was, actually, most of the folks in the bar were starting to clear out at 10 o'clock because they had convinced themselves that just like last time they were gonna wake up in the morning to if not a Democratic victory, a huge surge of incoming votes for Kamala Harris.
And even though at that point it, on all of the news channels, it, it was becoming very clear that the overwhelming likelihood was a victory for Trump. They, they just could not believe that that was what was going to happen.
SANCHEZ: And here we are.
DINGMAN: And here we are.
