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New Hampshire Voters Weigh In On Trump Win

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And let's get some reaction now on this side of the border. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang is in Manchester, N.H., which was one of the swing states that remained very close late into the evening. Hansi, good morning.

HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE: Good morning, David.

GREENE: So where are you taking in reaction to this election win by Donald Trump?

WANG: Well, I'm here in downtown Manchester at the Red Arrow Diner. It's a popular campaign stop. In fact, I'm seeing...

GREENE: I have been there. That's a famous political gathering place, right?

WANG: There's a - at this booth I'm at, there's a plaque that says Donald Trump sat here. So this is where he is stopped by right before the New Hampshire primary.

GREENE: Oh, OK.

WANG: Like you said, a very tight race here.

GREENE: He kept the seat warm for you I guess.

WANG: I guess so.

GREENE: Well, what - how are people reacting? I mean, I know it's not yet clear whether New Hampshire will go for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. I guess votes are still being counted, but people must be taking in the news of this victory.

WANG: They are, but I talked to a few Trump supporters here at the diner. They're very jazzed that Donald Trump is a president-elect. I talked to Tisha O'Keefe (ph). She's from Wolfeboro, N.H. She wore a red cap - the Make America Great Again - sitting at the counter. And she's been up since 7 a.m. yesterday volunteering for the campaign. Here's what she told me.

TISHA O'KEEFE: I feared what Hillary represented far more than what I fear of the unknown with, you know, the loudmouth Trump. Our country was not going to be safer. Our economy wasn't going to get better. And the corruption was just going to get that much worse.

WANG: O'Keefe said that she was very concerned about the email scandal. I talked to another Trump supporter that - and he compared - the middle class, he said, was like a dog that's been hurt by bad policies, job loss, a lot of economic pressure these past few years. And the Trump victory was - he saw it like a dog - a dog biting back.

GREENE: So many strong views you're hearing from voters, Hansi. I mean, is this speaking to a real division in this country that this campaign has exposed?

WANG: I spoke to some Clinton supporters, another voter who decided to not vote for either of the major party candidates, who said that they were concerned about divisions. One Clinton supporter I spoke to - her name's Sarah Dubay (ph). She said she felt that Trump was unfit - is unfit to become president, and that's why she voted for Clinton. But she thinks that, you know, a Trump presidency probably won't affect that much of her daily life, though. Here's what she said.

SARAH DUBAY: I don't think it's going to affect me. I have a good job. I have health insurance. You know, I'm a white American woman. I worry about - I have good friends who are married gay or lesbian couples. I worry about the potential for them to undo the LBGT community's right to marry.

WANG: So it's very unclear, of course, what policies will be under the Trump administration. But these two voters I talked to, they said, you know, they've lived through the '60s, the Vietnam War, and they have faith that they will ultimately weather through this, despite the divisions.

GREENE: They've see moments of division in this country. Hansi, are voters like the two of them talking to one another? I mean, are you seeing Trump supporters and Clinton supporters who are sharing this moment and talking it through, or do they just want nothing to do with each other?

WANG: Well, it is very early in the morning, and I think - so maybe that's unfair to characterize right now. But folks do seem to be keeping to their sides and trying to keep it quiet in terms of their personal thoughts, afraid to kind of stir up any debate so far this morning at the Red Arrow Diner.

GREENE: OK, well, we'll see - we'll see how communities react as the day goes on. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang talking to us from the famous Red Arrow Diner in Manchester, N.H. on this day after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. Hansi, thanks.

WANG: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him) is a national correspondent for NPR reporting on the people, power and money behind the U.S. census.