4 SoCal women share how they’re feeling after Trump's victory over Harris

LAist spoke with four women across the political spectrum about their reactions to former president Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the moment they realized Vice President Kamala Harris had lost.

Harris would have been the first woman to be elected president — and her campaign was counting on big support from women voters. In California, while Harris earned California’s 54 electoral college votes, about 40% ballots counted so far in the state went for Trump.

Here’s what we heard:

Janette Robinson Flint, Los Angeles

When Janette Robinson Flint woke up in the early hours of Nov. 6, she turned on the TV, then turned it right back off.

Janette Robinson Flint

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Courtesy Black Women for Wellness

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“I was like, 'Oh my God, four years? Oh my God.' And that's when I decided I needed to go for a walk,” she said.

So she went for that walk, bought herself some flowers, then called her daughter. All the feelings were hitting her at once.

“It is a profound sadness for this country,” Flint told LAist. “And confusion, but yet not. It is anger. It is disappointment, just profound disappointment.”

Flint is the executive director of local nonprofit health advocacy group Black Women for Wellness. That means she’s preparing for what a Trump presidency could mean for the health of Black women across the country, who already face significant health disparities, including dying from pregnancy complications at a rate nearly four times higher than the general population.

“[A Trump presidency] means that the barriers to secure an abortion will increase, which means the barriers to Black women will increase because they are already there,” Flint said. “And frankly, this election is chilling to all women in terms of seeking the health care that they need and deserve.”
 
Flint said the history of the resilience of Black people in this country is what keeps her going.

“We have to look at all the lessons that we have learned and put them together to create a roadmap forward,” Flint said. “We have to look at it for the long picture because the short picture would have us feeling powerless and in despair.”

Madai Rodriguez, San Bernardino

Madai Rodriguez didn’t have time to watch the election results. A former Uber/Lyft driver, she’s currently pursuing a nutritionist degree while being a busy mom of two elementary school age girls, one with autism.

Madai Rodriguez

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Courtesy Madai Rodriguez

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“I’m always running,” she told LAist. “I go to school in the morning, then I pick up my daughter and then she has speech therapy, occupational therapy, tutoring. So sometimes I'm just looking on the phone and I'm like, what's going on, you know?”

She said it’s tough to keep up with all the news, but when she heard that Trump won, she was excited.

“I was happy that he won because I feel we needed him again,” Rodriguez said.

She said a big part of her support of Trump is that her ex-husband, who is a truck driver, said his pay and the economy was better while Trump was in office.

“He was saying that we needed Trump again because when Trump was here the prices were decent,” she said. “Because right now, to live in California is really expensive. I hope the economy gets better. We could have more jobs. I noticed that food is getting expensive, so I hope [Trump] lowers that.”

She said another reason she’s happy about Trump’s win is because of her concerns about what her children are exposed to at school. She shared an anecdote about a recent conversation with her 8-year-old daughter who has autism.

“She knows that mom and dad are separated, so she asked me, ‘Are you going to marry a woman?’”

Rodriguez said that was at odds with her beliefs. “And I was like, no. I've been Christian all my life. My parents were Catholic. I grew up in the Catholic church. So I believe that God made a woman and God made a man to be together.”

Rodriguez also said that same day her daughter said she’d learned at school that it was OK if she wanted to be a boy.

“To mess with our kids’ minds, as a mom, I don't feel comfortable,” Rodriguez said. “I don't think it's okay for kids to know that at school. I don't have nothing against people that are transgender. I respect them, but I don't want my girls to feel confused.”

Krista Suh, Redondo Beach

Krista Suh decided to watch the election from her laptop at a local taco shop.

Krista Suh

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Courtesy Krista Suh

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“I had a lot of people tell me, like, we're not watching it, we're just gonna look through our fingers tomorrow morning and see what happens,” Suh recalled. “And I decided that I was gonna be optimistic.”

She’d just returned from canvassing for Harris in Phoenix, Arizona, and was feeling hopeful. But when the Pennsylvania results started coming in, her feelings turned sour.

“I was more shocked than anything,” Suh said. “I knew, of course, it was a possibility. I just couldn't believe that it was happening again. I thought I was going to be more prepared this time around… I feel really disappointed and almost a sense of awe of the work ahead of us.”

Suh is an artist, screenwriter and activist. She is one of the creators of the famous pink “Pussyhat” — a response to Trump's 2005 comments that women would let him "grab them by the pussy” because of his celebrity and wealth. The hat was worn by thousands of women across the country during women's marches in 2017 after Trump’s first presidential win.

She said she feels more jaded now.

“I feel like a lot has been sacrificed in order to have this Trump victory,” Suh said. “A lot of people just really focused in on the economy and they felt that economically they would do better under Trump. That's at the price of a lot, where he's promised to strip away rights from women like me, and all the anti-Asian hate he's put out there.”

Hate crimes against Asian Americans spiked after Trump’s rhetoric calling the COVID-19 pandemic “the Chinese virus.”

“I think that's what's really hurtful, the feeling that people would rather pay for cheaper eggs than actually care about my eggs and basic humanity,” Suh said.

Meanwhile, Suh said she’s working to figure out her next steps as an artist and activist.

“I'm kind of in that creative brainstorming mode,” she said. “The patriarchy is just so deeply ingrained in our minds and that's something that I want to counteract, whether it's through activism or art or both.”

But for now, she needs some time to recover.

“In terms of self care,” Suh said, “it's like French fries and being with my dog.”

J. Carrie Torres, Laguna Niguel

J. Carrie Torres wasn’t expecting to know for days who would be America’s next president when she went to a watch party at Muldoon’s Irish Pub in Newport Beach.

“When we got a winner, it was unbelievable,” Torres said. “I was in shock. I just couldn't believe that he won. It took me to tears honestly. I was so excited. I was so happy. It's just like…everything is going to be OK again.”

J. Carrie Torres

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Courtesy J. Carrie Torres

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Torres, who works as a realtor and is a mom of two grown kids, said she’s excited about Trump’s win because she believes he’ll improve the economy, limit young children’s exposure to transgender experiences in schools, and secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We're going to be back on track again. I'm so excited I can't even… I took the next day off and just sat here in disbelief of getting our country back,” Torres told LAist.

Torres said she believes the backlash against Trump’s rhetoric on women is overblown, and that the women who have accused him of sexual assault or misconduct are lying.

And while she personally believes women should have the right to abortion, she said that right should be decided by individual states, not the federal government.

“I don't look at myself like, ‘I am a woman, you are a man, he is Black, she is Asian,’” Torres said. “I don't care. We are all just people. And in this country, we are Americans. I'm an American and I stand up for American values. And so does Trump. And I am so excited that he won because he stands up for me, my values. Most dear, of course, is family, and the Lord, and our country.”