In two states Biden claimed from Trump in 2020, some see hopes dashed while others dream big.
ATLANTA AND MILWAUKEE—Georgia and Wisconsin helped push President-elect Donald J. Trump across the finish line—in Wisconsin’s case, by prompting The Associated Press to call the 2024 election for him.
After winning both states eight years ago, Trump lost both of them in 2020. His wins this time around come alongside demographic shifts and a popular vote win that are unprecedented among recent Republican presidential winners.
The Epoch Times spoke to people in Wisconsin and Georgia about their thoughts on the results.
Wisconsinites Respond to Trump’s Win
Early on the morning of Nov. 6, Wisconsin GOP Chair Brian Schimming was jubilant over Trump’s win, posting a photo with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) on social media.
But a little later in the day, there weren’t too many young and middle-aged adults on the streets of southeastern Wisconsin. It was, after all, a weekday; there was school or work.
National exit polling from Reuters reported that Trump gained five points among voters aged 18 to 29, and lost three points among voters 65 and older. Gen X voters, a group still mainly in their working years, showed the strongest support for Trump according to exit polling from NBC and CNN.
Union Grove, a village in rural western Racine County, felt friendly to the president-elect. In one window, a standee of a prominent Trump supporter, potbellied golf legend John Daly, advertised a brand of vodka. Signs for Trump and Wisconsin Republicans dotted yards on the outskirts of town.
The Epoch Times caught two Trump supporters on a construction site. Richard Paap and Graham Wick were working on what would become a brewery.
Paap said he’d been confident Trump would win the battleground state. Why? “Because we can’t put up with another four years of what we had,” he said.
“I stand for it,” Wick said of the election result. He looks forward to a decrease in prices under Trump.
Northwest of Union Grove, in a Milwaukee suburb called Hales Corners, an older man named John was also at work. John, who did not wish to share his last name, was pushing shopping carts in the parking lot of a supermarket.
He said he was pleasantly surprised by Trump’s victory in Wisconsin, which he sees as a traditionally Democrat-leaning state. “People have woken up,” John said.
John was especially concerned about illegal immigration. In that area and others, he expressed confidence in Trump to execute his stated priorities.
“Mid-January, that thing’s gonna be shut!” he said of the border, bringing down one hand on the other to emphasize the point.
Inside the grocery store, retired pharmacist John Persh was glad to see Trump win too.
“Government controls health care already,” he said, citing pressure that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services can bring to bear on hospitals. He also worries about the influence of Big Pharma on the medical system.
Persh said he hopes Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has said he will work in the Trump administration to “make America healthy again,” can improve things in health care.
While Persh was pleased by what happened in Wisconsin, many retirees who spoke with The Epoch Times were disturbed by Tuesday’s result, in line with exit polling showing a decline in Trump’s performance with the elderly.
Earlier in the morning, small groups of older adults were speed-walking through the halls of a mall in Brookfield, another suburb of Milwaukee.
“It is what it is,” said Rob Scott, who retired from a job fixing underground gas leaks for a gas company. “I accept that he did it fair and square.”
Scott is no fan of the president-elect. “I can’t stand the man,” he said, taking issue with Trump’s character and felony convictions.
Yet, he hopes Trump can improve things for Americans. The border and crime are among his concerns.
“We did have it better when he was in,” the Harris voter said.
Mary, a retired government worker who did not wish to share her last name, said she wasn’t entirely sure how her state flipped to Trump. Like others who have spoken with The Epoch Times, she suggested that objections to the Biden administration’s Israel policy in the Democrats’ base helped sink Harris’s candidacy.
Mary echoed Scott’s sentiment when it comes to Trump.
“I just can’t stand him,” she said.
Georgians Reflect on Another Trump Flip
Much of Trump’s election night momentum hinged on his rapid progress in Georgia. The Epoch Times and others had predicted that the former president had made inroads among African American voters in the Peachtree State, and it was not clear if Harris would be able to repeat President Joe Biden’s narrow 2020 victory.
Harris and Trump both sensed the importance of the battleground state and campaigned in Georgia repeatedly in the weeks before the election; Harris was in Atlanta on Nov. 2, and Trump visited Macon the next day.
At around 10:45 p.m. election night, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced that Trump’s lead over Kamala Harris was insurmountable—there simply were not enough uncounted votes for her to catch up.
Georgia residents have generally been reluctant to talk politics over the weeks leading up to Election Day. Conversations with a few college students at Kennesaw State shed light on the local cultural norm: “This is the South. There is a lot of conflict” one student told The Epoch Times.
Nevertheless, a few locals were willing to share their reactions the day after the election.
Trump’s victory came as a mild shock to 32-year-old security guard and YouTuber Kendall Nance, as he expected Harris to win based on Trump’s record.
“It’s more or less … I’m a little confused more than anything. I’m not really afraid,” he said.
“Hopefully things pan out.”
Nance said he voted for Harris, having voted Democrat since he graduated high school. But facing a Trump victory, he said he was hopeful that Trump might revitalize the economy and bring the cost of living down.
“Freaking out won’t really benefit me in any kind of way,” he said.
AI writer Nic Lechler, 23, voted for Trump. He was hopeful about the future but not 100 percent confident about his vote.
“I’m scared whether or not it’s gonna be the right choice, but I guess that’s always, you know, up to God,” he said.
Although Nic and Kendall voted for different candidates, they both shared the same primary concern: the economy.
“I’m just hoping that prices can be lower in grocery stores and just general needs,” Nic said.
He stayed up to watch the election until Georgia was called—he was not expecting an easy Trump victory.
“I thought it was going to be a toss-up, a squeaker,” he said.
“And then, as soon as they were going through the counties … I was like, ‘Oh, wow, I guess that’s just the trend.’”
Not all voters’ reactions were so understated. 54-year-old nurse Diane Williams just shook her head in disbelief when asked about the election result.
She said she had been confident that Harris would win; she fell asleep watching the numbers roll in and was awakened by the sound of Trump giving his victory speech.
That made her feel “afraid,” she said.
“What’s to come, you know? I mean, just on the whole, our hopes were set so high and got dashed. You know, I started thinking, ‘coulda shoulda woulda,’ what we could have done differently?”
She told The Epoch Times that she would have liked to see the Harris campaign reach out to the youth vote and address concerns about issues in the Middle East.
Williams also wished that Harris herself had been “a little more open.”