One hundred kilometres south of Vancouver, voters in Whatcom County awoke on Nov. 6 to Trump’s stunning sweep to power — a dog-eared deep-blue splash of Democrat support in a nation showing predominantly Republican red.
Kamala Harris lost the country, but won the state, capturing 58 per cent of Tuesday night’s first ballot count, compared to 39 per cent for Trump.
Even Clallam County, home to Port Angeles, Wash., broke its 40-year streak as a bellwether that always picked the winner, voting this time for the losing candidate.
On voting day, Pete Gibson and his partner, Emily Capisciolto, huddled together on the steps of Bellingham’s Whatcom County courthouse, combing over the lengthy ballot concerned about the environment and reproductive rights for women.
“It’s a very divided and intense election,” said Capisciolto. “The only hope is we can find some unity,” said Gibson.
The Early Edition6:10How did the U.S. election go over in Washington State?
We speak with CBC reporter Yvette Brend in Bellingham.
Despite Trump’s decisive majority, many are still polarized.
In Blaine, Wash., bartender and school coach Rick Freeman says he backed Trump. But his long-time buddy Steve Miller backed Harris. So they talk football.
“We leave politics out of it,” Freeman said.
Urban-rural tensions
In Whatcom County, rural voters historically favour Republican, like Danielle Matei of Bellingham.
“City people don’t really get a feel for what most of the country is. Most of the country is not megacities,” Matei said.
Her family runs a hobby farm and heating business. She said disrespect for Trump supporters is unfair.
“I don’t feel like we are these evil people,” she said.
She voted, hoping for a better economy, lower food prices and a peaceful election outcome.
“I support Trump because of his policies, not because I think he’s a perfect person by any means.”
Trump’s sweep at the national level leaves 25-year-old Skagit Valley farm worker Alfredo Juarez “in shock.”
He and thousands of Washington state farm workers now fear Trump’s threat of mass deportations.
“We were really hoping Kamala would have won, but it didn’t go that way,” said Juarez, who is from Guerrero, Mexico.
He hopes the newly elected state-level Democrats can somehow help uncertain migrant workers.
Washington’s deep blue slate of wins
Early results show Democrats leading in all nine races for statewide elected positions.
Democrat Bob Ferguson won the governor’s race. The last Republican governor was elected 40 years ago.
As Washington state’s attorney general, Ferguson sued the Trump administration over travel bans from Muslim-majority countries and participated in lawsuits against the Biden administration that aimed to increase abortion pill access.
Democrat Nick Brown defeated Republican Pete Serrano to become the state’s first Black attorney general.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell won her fifth term in Congress.
Three Republican-backed ballot measures also failed in Washington state. One, Initiative 2117, would have repealed portions of the state’s Climate Commitment Act, which allows the state to charge polluters for their emissions or forces them to purchase the equivalent in allowances.
It’s raised more than $ 2 billion US in allowances and is the first act of its kind to survive the ballot box.
Zoë Plakias, an adjunct assistant professor with the University of Western Washington’s Economics Department, said Washingtonians are supportive of environmental policies.
But she’s worried about this new shift of power in the White House.
“There are tough times ahead for the United States. As a woman and an academic, I am concerned about my own rights moving forward as well as for the health, safety, and well-being of all Americans,” she wrote in an email on Wednesday.
Voters in Whatcom County faced a long ballot. There were a myriad of races — from governor to judges — and several political initiatives, including a call to repeal capital gains income tax and opt out of long-term care insurance. Large numbers of voters opted to mail in or drop their ballots in assigned boxes — taking time at home to study the long list of choices on the ballot that can take up to 30 minutes to complete.
‘To celebrate or mourn’
Many Democrat supporters started Tuesday evening with high hopes despite the tight race.
Trump’s win is not what self-described political junkie and Kamala Harris fan Pummy Kaur of White Rock, B.C., was hoping for after driving to Bellingham for an election night watch party, only to have her fears realized.
“The current situation here will very seriously affect my children and grandchildren,” Kaur said. “It’s going to give permission to some of our politicians to behave the same way.”
“I’m afraid that my children are going to have a much worse world to live in. Environmental regulations will become deregulated. Education will suffer,” she said late Tuesday at a watch party open to everyone.
“I’m here to be with like-minded people, either to celebrate or mourn. I just didn’t want to do it alone.”