2024 Election night nightmare evokes painful memories of bygone elections: 1980, 2000 and 2016
It was a strange, terrible feeling. And one I had experienced before.
From the minute polls closed and CNN started to report results, it was clear this would be a close election. But it was also apparent that former President Donald Trump was doing well, better than predicted.
Just like in 2016 and 2020. It’s obvious that some of his supporters either will not admit they back him, or avoid the media and polling firms. Trump’s numbers have been underestimated in three straight elections.
As the night wore on, his numbers grew stronger. Trump kept winning states, and even though they were ones he was favored in, the fact that Vice President Kamala Harris was not matching him in states where he was favored was disturbing.
His Electoral College numbers kept growing. Meanwhile, in the all-important swing states — Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona — Trump’s totals grew. It was a nightmare coming true right before our eyes.
It brought me back to 1980, 2000 and 2016. Those election nights were rough, too.
In 1980, I was in Sioux Falls with a cadre of SDSU students who volunteered to knock on doors and hand out flyers for Sen. George McGovern, Congressman Tom Daschle and, for most of the students, President Jimmy Carter. I was a disgruntled Ted Kennedy supporter who had voted early for independent John Anderson, so I declined to distribute Carter material.
I know, it was an arrogant, dumb and meaningless decision. I have made a lot of them.
Anyway, we got to Sioux Falls very early and went to work. I covered several precincts on a cold, windy day, going door-to-door.
While McGovern was defeated by Congressman James Abdnor — it was the last election when we had two House members — he carried the three precincts I worked. Years later, I told McGovern that.
His response? “You should have worked more precincts.”
At the end of the day, a group of us went to polling places, passing out coffee and other hot drinks to voters standing in line. We urged them to brave the cold and cast their ballots.
When we returned to the Democratic headquarters, we soon realized it had all been for naught. Carter conceded early, as Ronald Reagan won in a landslide.
McGovern saw his 22-year career in Congress come to an end, and he delivered a cold, furious speech. I was right up front, emotional and half-soused on the free booze that was available.
It was a right-wing night, as prominent liberals across the country were defeated. A group of older Democrats drank heavily and told bitter jokes.
A friend and I finally caught a ride from former Gov. Harvey Wollman to Daschle’s victory party. He had survived the Republican tide and was on his way to a long, influential career in Washington, D.C.
When we woke up the next morning, newspapers and morning TV shows were filled with smiling Republicans celebrating their victory. It was the dawn of the age of Reagan, and the first of many bad days for America.
On election night 2000, I was the editor of The Whitefish Pilot in northwest Montana. The internet was a new tool then, and we had promised readers a full report.
We tried. We reported the local and statewide results, and tried to announce the next president. But it kept changing.
George W. Bush had won and Al Gore had conceded. No, Gore took that back. Maybe he was the winner.
We finally gave up around 3 a.m. and headed home. It would be weeks before a winner was announced, although we will never really know who won the election.
But it was Gore.
The 2016 election started out as a historic story ready to be quickly told. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had been first lady of Arkansas and the USA and a top advisor to her husband, President Bill Clinton before serving as a senator from New York and secretary of state under President Barack Obama, was heavily favored to win.
It looked like a short night. The New York Times listed her odds of winning at around 90 percent. Then, that number started to drop.
It kept falling, and the realization that somehow, Donald J. Trump, who had failed as a developer, casino owner and person, might actually win. It seemed bizarre and almost surreal.
But as midnight approached, it was apparent that thanks to the Electoral College, Trump would sneak into the White House despite the fact that the majority of Americans opposed him.
It was a sickening feeling, and one that has remained for eight years.
His defeat in 2020 lessened some of that, but then he urged his mob to come to the Capitol and try to seize the presidency for him. Watching the events of Jan. 6, 2021, unfold was truly appalling.
Surely, that would end the Trump nightmare. There was no way even the far-right fringe of the Republican Party would support him, was there?
Cut to election night 2024. Right away, the numbers seemed alarming. Trump was doing better than expected across the country.
The New York Times listed him as a slight favorite to win. Soon, he was at nearly 70 percent as his Electoral College total rose and Harris stood still. It couldn’t happen again, could it?
It did. The waking nightmare was real once more.
I don’t have 44 more years to watch elections. I was hoping for a more promising future for our country.
Instead, we have a corrupt, hateful, dangerous man preparing to take office, with no limits on what he might do to the nation and world.
It was difficult to sleep that night. The networks and news outlets had not yet declared Trump the winner, but it was obvious he would somehow triumph.
One thing was clear, however. The country we thought we knew was lost, maybe forever.
Fourth-generation South Dakotan Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states for four decades. He has contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The London Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets. Do not republish without permission.
Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons
