Story by Emily Williams, Contributing writer
State-by-state election results show Donald Trump won Kentucky as a whole by 63 percent of the votes in the state. Trump also took Calloway County, receiving 10,367 votes compared to Clinton’s 4,749.
Members of the Calloway County Republican Party gathered to watch as the election results came in on Tuesday evening. A strong allegiance to the GOP was very evident in the majority of the members present.
Greg DeLancey, citizen of Murray and chairman of the Calloway County Republican Party, said the fact that Trump is pro-life played a big role in his decision to vote Trump because the basic nature of life is important to him.
“I’m relieved that the election is over,” DeLancey said. “We all have been waiting for this moment, but it really has been stressful.”
He said he believes if Trump can pull jobs back into the country and create a certain amount of wealth then that is going to make a big difference in our community and country.
“All of the crazy antics of the candidates have been disappointing,” DeLancey said. “We didn’t get to the heart of the issues early enough and I felt as if voters were short-changed in knowing which issues were important.”
Bryan Ernstberger, county attorney in Calloway County and member of the Calloway County Republican Party, said he would not call himself a fan or big supporter of Trump, but he said he is very against Hillary Clinton.
“I’m kind of disappointed that the primary process did not give us a candidate that we can be happier about,” Ernstberger said. “At the same time, I’m in the 83 percent of Americans that were voting against the other candidate. It wasn’t a choice, it was a lack of options.”
Ernstberger said this election was astonishing to him because the precincts of Calloway County had much higher vote totals than in past years, which he said he’s glad to see.
“Harris Grove, which is Calloway County’s largest precinct, had 960 [votes caste] two years ago, and this year had over 1,100,” Ernstberger said. “That’s not nearly the biggest shift. There were some precincts that voted double what they have historically voted or more.”
Ed Davis, citizen of Murray and member of the Calloway County Republican Party said he voted for Trump because he would rather have an “unknown” as president than Hillary Clinton whose background appears very “unclean.”
“If he can control his mouth, I think he’ll be alright,” Davis said. “I firmly support him and I think I’m like a lot of others in giving him the benefit of the doubt. I certainly don’t want the other candidate in there, so that’s primarily where I come from.”
Davis said he thinks this year’s election held too much negativity. He said too much “mud” was thrown from both sides and candidates should stick to the issues and solutions rather than bashing the opposing candidate.
He said since he’s 78 years old, he isn’t as much concerned about his own future as he is about the future of his 30-year-old granddaughter and what this year’s election will mean for her.
“It’s sad that some of the mainline Republicans have acted the way they have,” Davis said. “I’m hopeful and prayerful that all this animosity that exists will cease and we will get back to making America great again.”