Big Island voters react to shocker

KAILUA-KONA — Coming into Tuesday’s presidential election, area Republicans were feeling a few emotions: anxious and nervous, yes, but also hopeful and confident.

And Tuesday night, as Republican nominee Donald Trump added more and more states to his tally, those emotions seemed to pay off.

“The people of this nation want change,” said West Hawaii Republicans vice chairman of policy and platforms Dave Bateman. “They’re tired of politics as usual and tired of gridlock.”

Bateman was one of several people who gathered at The Edible World Institute in Kailua-Kona to watch election returns roll in.

David Ross, chairman of the West Hawaii Republicans, said he was focusing on the “silent vote,” voters who were supportive of Trump yet missed by pollsters who gave Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton the advantage in the polls ahead of Tuesday’s race.

Their existence, Ross said, was undoubtable. The question was “just how strong it would be.”

Bateman also brought up missed voters, calling them the “silent majority.”

He said those voters, when polled or interviewed, “may not be expressing their disgust” with the current state of affairs.

“People are suffering,” he said. “People need relief. They want change.”

Ross said he saw much of the support coming from a desire to see Trump restore accountability to Washington, D.C. He referred to rising premiums on insurance rates and the Hawaii Health Connector, a private, nonprofit health insurance exchange launched in 2013 to help uninsured Hawaii residents compare and purchase health insurance plans online.

Ross said $200 million worth of federal funding went into the program before it was shut down.

“How can you waste $200 million in Hawaii?” Ross said. “Where’s the accountability for that?”

“That is crazy and no one’s accountable for that,” he added.

Bruce Pratt, a Republican who lost in his bid for the House District 6 seat Tuesday, was out campaigning during the day, keeping tabs on the election with quick glances at his phone.

It was Trump’s wins in Ohio and Florida, which happened around 8 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time, that really caught his attention, he said.

“I said, ‘Boy, he’s got a chance to really win this thing,’” Pratt said Tuesday at the watch party.

Initially a supporter of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Pratt said he always considered Trump a valid candidate.

“I recognized early on the press was going to paint him as a reality TV star rather than take him as a legitimate candidate,” he said.

And as the race unfolded, Pratt watched as Trump won race after race leading up to winning the Republican nomination.

“You gotta admire a guy that does that,” he said.

As for Trump’s rhetoric, Pratt argued there was a difference between the Trump the campaigner and Trump the businessman.

“When Trump is not up on a stage in front of 25,000 people, 50,000 people … you start to see the man who built the empire,” he said.

By that, he said, he means that Trump’s campaign is about outlining priorities whereas when it comes to governing, he expects he would be more focused on creating solutions.

“It’s the difference between idealism and reality,” he said.

Other Big Island residents, however, weren’t as celebratory.

Lorna Kahauolopua of Keaukaha, a grandmother of 15, was closely watching the election, when interviewed by the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.

“I didn’t envision it going this way,” she told a reporter after Donald Trump had achieved wins in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina and Georgia, but the election hadn’t yet been called.

State House Rep. Cindy Evans, a Democrat who represents North Kona and all of Kohala and retained her seat Tuesday, said she was surprised about the presidential results.

“I really thought (Clinton) was going to win,” she said.

She said she initially believed the race would be close and as the night went on, Clinton and Trump jockeyed for states before Trump began pulling ahead.

“I felt like it was the World Series,” she said.

“I was surprised,” she added. “I thought it would be a little closer than it ended up being.”

Evans said she believed it was Trump’s messaging on building the economy and improving infrastructure that ended up driving people to support him.

“People want to feel the economy is doing well,” she said.

Despite the representative’s support of Clinton, she’s still optimistic about the country’s future under a Trump administration.

She noted that people are going to be keeping an eye on who he appoints to his cabinet and how he deals with international leaders.

“They’re going to watch with a lot of anticipation,” she said. “We’re going to be watching to see what he does.”

“I want our leaders to succeed,” she added.

In Hawaii, she said, it’s important for the state’s leaders and representatives to continue working to ensure the state has a seat at the table and gets the representation it needs.

Voters who were among the first Tuesday morning to cast their ballots at Konawaena High School said they were, to put it bluntly, over it.

“I’m glad it’s over with,” said Lou Garringer, 70, early Tuesday morning.

Garringer said he’s been voting for just about 50 years and this year’s race is by far the angriest he’s seen.

“I’m just tired of the acrimony,” he said.

William Pink, 65, called the options for this year’s election depressing.

“Out of all the people in this entire country, this is the best we have,” he said. “Oh my God, it is a sad state of affairs.”

“You just shake your head knowing that’s all we have,” added Patty Page, 61, who was with Pink at the polling place.

Erin Cronin, 44, said she was voting for Clinton and had hopes Democrats could gain seats in Congress, but added that the rhetoric surrounding the election “has been disgraceful.”

She referred to many of Trump’s comments, including his calls to build a wall along the southern border and questioning a judge’s ability to objectively hear a case, as “racist and discriminatory.”