California woke up Wednesday to a stunning new reality: Republican Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States, with congressional majorities that will empower him to pursue an agenda most of the state finds objectionable and some consider dangerous.
Having delivered 55 electoral votes to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, the most of any state, Californians watched with surprise — and, in many cases, horror — as Trump pulled off arguably the greatest upset in modern political history, smashing through Clinton’s supposedly formidable get-out-the-vote operation in crucial swing states like Florida and Ohio.
Talk of secession — #calexit — was trending on Twitter overnight. The Canadian immigration website crashed, possibly as a result of people across the United States seeing just what it would take to join America’s northern neighbor. Early morning demonstrations filled streets in Oakland, San Jose and elsewhere. But initial panic in U.S. and world financial markets calmed after Trump gave what was considered a gracious acceptance speech early Wednesday morning in New York.
For some in California, the real estate tycoon’s victory was sweet validation and a needed rebuke of the political establishment, which they believe has failed to generate prosperity and hope for the future to millions of working-class Americans left behind amid a global economy.
“The American people have had enough,” said 54-year-old Saratoga resident and out-of-work auto mechanic John Cagliostro, who celebrated Tuesday night at Trump’s Santa Clara County headquarters in Sunnyvale. “All the illegal aliens are coming in and taking my job from me and they’re voting Democratic because they’re getting free government cheese.”
But for most of the state, particularly the deep blue Bay Area, Trump’s victory was a sickening body blow. During his incendiary campaign, the businessman and reality television star stoked white resentment of immigrants and minorities, particularly Latinos and Muslims; pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act and environmental protections; derided climate change as a hoax invented by the Chinese; demeaned women; and vowed to nominate the sort of deeply conservative Supreme Court justices who would reverse Roe v. Wade.
“If California voters had known what was coming on the national stage, they would have legalized heroin,” tweeted Sacramento polling and campaign data guru Paul Mitchell, referring to the passage of Proposition 64, which legalizes recreational marijuana in California.
Like most political experts, Mitchell was caught off-guard by Trump’s triumph. Clinton maintained a slim but durable lead in polls of voters, both nationally and in many battleground states, leading up to the election.
Comedian Patton Oswalt tweeted an unusual plan Tuesday night for easing the pain of Trump’s win; “#Election2016 update: Driving to Barstow and paying a trucker to punch me unconscious.”
Seth McFarlane, creator of the TV show “Family Guy,” was tweeting his disappointment before 6 a.m. Wednesday: “A climate-denying, anti-equality, anti-reproductive rights establishment has been installed, so yes, we’re allowed our online meltdowns.”
California Attorney General Kamala Harris — who defeated a fellow Democrat, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Orange, in the campaign to replace outgoing Sen. Barbara Boxer — urged her supporters not to despair over Clinton’s loss.
“We must not be overwhelmed or throw up our hands,” she tweeted late Tuesday. “It is time to roll up our sleeves and fight for who we are!”
Trump struck a conciliatory tone in his victory speech early Wednesday, calling for unity among Republicans, Democrats and independents.
“I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all of Americans,” he said. “For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which there were a few people, I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country.”
But millions of Californians are feeling uneasy after what Jack Pitney, professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College, called the “biggest surprise in American political history” and a “massive failure of public opinion research.”
Pamela Drake, an Oakland Democrat, turned off her TV in disgust Tuesday night.
“I’m so angry at my country I can’t bear it,” she said.
San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, who was leading fellow Supervisor Jane Kim early Wednesday in the race for state Senate District 11, which includes San Francisco and part of northern San Mateo County, called Trump’s victory “a complete train wreck for the country” and said the progressive movement will need to fight for its political vision.
Wiener predicted Trump will go after sanctuary city laws in places like San Francisco and San Jose that protect illegal immigrants from deportation, and said the president-elect could seek to undermine state and local minimum wage laws as well. He said white working-class voters who propelled Trump into office have shot themselves in the foot.
“It’s unfathomable what people were thinking in doing this,” Wiener said, “but it also points to a lot of frustration and anger in many parts of the country and people who are suffering economically and falling behind. This was for many of them almost a primal scream at wanting to do something to make change, but tragically the change that they have empowered will be destructive to the country and destructive to them.
About 250 protestors marched late Tuesday night through downtown Oakland, police said. Vandalism to multiple businesses was reported. They may be other Bay Area protests in days ahead.
While the rest of the country was electing Trump, Californians approved a slew of liberal ballot measures. Proposition 63, strengthening California’s gun laws, passed easily. Measures making more felons eligible for parole and extending a tax on high-income earners also passed, while an initiative upholding the state’s plastic-bag ban was ahead.
Matthew Artz contributed to this story
Students protest the Trump election at Richmond High School. (Karina Ioffee)
