Nov 9, 2016 4 min read

Not everyone interested in the outcome of the United States presidential election could stay awake to watch Donald Trump’s victory speech, but someone who campaigned on his behalf was certainly more motivated to celebrate and listen to what the president-elect had to say.

Olivia Schultz-Falandes, 20, of North Adams, Mass., secretary of the Waynesburg University College Republicans, voted for president for the first time Tuesday, just weeks after she had been door-knocking in the borough for Trump.

Some chose to ignore the visitors, “but it was encouraging to see people who did answer their doors were pretty amped about the election,” she said in a phone interview from the campus Wednesday afternoon.

Schultz-Falandes, who is majoring in both history and political science, voted in Waynesburg so her vote “would have more impact in Pennsylvania than it would in Massachusetts.”

“I personally did not expect Trump to win,” Schultz-Falandes said, but a group, fortified with pizza, nonetheless monitored the projections Tuesday night on a large screen at the Bee Hive in the Stover Campus Center, flipping from channel to channel until about 2 a.m. When the GOP nominee gave his victory speech, she was watching him on her phone, alone in her dormitory room.

Schultz-Falandes said she found the most important aspect of Trump’s speech to be “unifying the country, to start bringing people together, and trying to bridge the gap between Republicans and Democrats. To start bringing people together more as Americans rather than different groups.”

Although she attended two Ted Cruz rallies during the primary, Schultz-Falandes and the campus Republicans have no plans at this time to attend Trump’s inauguration. But she said a “Farewell Obama” event is taking place on inauguration eve, “open to all students, to either celebrate or mourn Obama’s last day as president.”

Maddie Snyder, Democratic Party chairman in Greene County, did not immediately return a call for comment, and Ron Sicchitano, her counterpart in Washington County, could not be reached.

The Washington County elections office website offers a precinct-by-precinct glimpse into the presidential election results. There are 15 school districts in the county, including West Brownsville Borough, which is part of Fayette County’s Brownsville Area. Trump carried 14 of the 15 school districts by margins varying between 51 percent in California Area to 74 percent in McGuffey. Clinton carried Washington School District, which includes the city and East Washington.

The University of Pittsburgh’s Dr. Jerry Shuster, professor in political communication and presidential rhetoric in the Department of Communication, attributed Trump’s appeal in Washington and Greene counties to voters who “live in the heart of an area that is fundamentally Democratic and have been for generations. They felt they were abandoned. You’re probably right in the heart of where this is felt most.

“The loss of jobs over the entire country on the lower level, those kinds of jobs are missing from our economy, where you can at least raise a family.

“I will tell you, (Trump) is not going to bring back the steel industry and bring back the coal industry. He would need magic to do that. The steel industry could never come back. It’s just not that kind of industry anymore. It’s technologically focused, and it wouldn’t be done by hundreds of mill workers.”

Shuster sees retraining as a missing component to the sustainable jobs puzzle. “Community colleges should’ve stepped up to the plate,” he said. “That would be an easy way to start.

“I think people really wanted a change and they were just tired of being ignored. Has anyone ever approached Washington & Jefferson College to be a center for training” for professions in the medical field, he asked. “We take pride in our ability to innovate and regenerate, but we haven’t done that.”

Shuster sees a dichotomy in electing a new president but returning almost all the incumbent legislators to Washington, D.C.

“A president has very little constitutional power,” Shuster said. “Congress has to start becoming more conscious of their impact on the nation. How do you get a change? The guys who were elected yesterday, they’ve already started on their next campaign.”