In what is being called one of the biggest surprises in American political history, reality-television star Donald Trump was elected 45th president of the United States.
Many pundits began forecasting Trump’s victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton after the Republican took Pennsylvania. As of presstime, Trump had captured 48.8 percent of Pennsylvania versus Clinton’s 47.6 percent. In Philadelphia, Clinton won more than 82 percent of the vote.
As of presstime, Clinton was leading in the national popular vote by about 200,000, yet Trump crossed the 270 electoral-vote threshold early Wednesday morning.
In a concession speech a few hours later, Clinton thanked her supporters.
“Make sure your voices are heard going forward,” she said. “This loss hurts but please never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.”
Trump’s election dealt a devastating blow to the LGBT community. Trump has pledged to support Supreme Court justices who would roll back marriage equality and backs the First Amendment Defense Act, which would give businesses a license to discriminate against LGBT people. His vice president, Mike Pence, gained notoriety for his support of Indiana’s “religious-freedom” law when he was governor.
“[The] election result is a difficult blow to many in the LGBT community, women and people of color,” Equality Pennsylvania executive director Ted Martin said in a statement. “Many will see this as a backlash against the progress that we have made in the past decades. We know that LGBT Pennsylvanians are now fearful for their futures and their physical safety. Given the intense and often hateful rhetoric of the past several months we cannot blame them.”
Martin noted that “if there ever were a community of people who have shown resilience in the face of adversity and discrimination — it is us. We know how to come together, and we will need to do that now, for ourselves and for future generations.”
“Throughout our nation’s history, we’ve faced devastating setbacks in our pursuit of a more perfect union,” added Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin. “But even in the darkest of moments, Americans have summoned the courage and persistence to fight on.”
Republicans also retained control of Congress. Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey held his Senate seat after topping Democrat Katie McGinty 49-47 percent.
Democrat Mary Ellen Balchunis was unable to oust Republican Congressman Patrick Meehan (Seventh Dist.), who won nearly 60 percent of the vote. Democrat Steven Santarsiero also lost his challenge to Republican Brian Fitzpatrick 54-46 percent for the Eighth Distrist Congressional seat.
Democrats were more successful in state races. Josh Shapiro bested John Rafferty 51-49 percent to become Attorney General. Eugene DePasquale was elected Auditor General 50-45 percent over John Brown. Joe Torsella beat Otto Voit 51-44 percent to become the state’s Treasurer.