Ellie Park, Multimedia Managing Editor

Barbara Vereen, organizing director of Local 34 UNITE HERE, woke up in the middle of the night yesterday to the news that former President Donald Trump had won the presidential election. 

Vereen, who is also a Ward 20 Democratic Town Committee co-chair, thought she was in “a bad dream” as she watched the results come in from across the country on Tuesday night. She flipped through channel after channel until she finally found one that had not yet called the election for Trump, staying on that channel until results from Pennsylvania made her certain of a Trump victory.

“I only worked a half-day because it was very hard,” Vereen said. “It was hard. It was very hard. And even when I talked to some of my colleagues, it was hard. It was a hard day.”

Almost 80 percent of New Haven residents voted for Vice President Kamala Harris, and less than a fifth backed Trump in Tuesday’s presidential race. But on Wednesday, many woke up to a political reality far different from what they had expected. Instead of the nation’s first female president, the country elected Trump, who will be only the second president in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms.

The mood in the city is “somber,” Vereen said, as “people don’t know what to expect.” Nonetheless, she expressed determination to continue her work as a union organizer. 

“We’ll get through the next four years, but the four years can’t come fast enough,” Vereen said. “We’ll continue fighting for justice. We’ll continue fighting for good jobs and making things better. We all have to try for something better.”

Mayor Justin Elicker echoed Vereen’s sentiments in a press release shared on Wednesday morning. 

Elicker shared disappointment at Trump’s election, calling it “a true setback for our country,” but expressed a renewed commitment to local solutions.

“We will be a place of inclusion and belonging for all. We will protect the rights and freedoms of our residents,” he said. “While the task has now gotten harder, we are not going back. We didn’t the first time Donald Trump was president — and we’re not going back this time either.”

Ward 7 Alder Eli Sabin told the News he was similarly disappointed with the result and concerned about the impact of a second Trump term on New Haven residents.

In particular, Sabin expressed concern for immigrants in New Haven at risk of deportation, those reliant on federal welfare programs vulnerable to cuts and women whose access to reproductive health care might be curtailed by the second Trump administration.

“I’m also feeling a lot of resolve and determination to continue working with my colleagues on the Board of Alders and folks in our community and neighborhood, leaders, the mayor, all of our elected officials and just everyday residents to fight back and keep doing all the work we need to do to improve our community,” he said. 

Leslie Blatteau, president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers, is “disheartened,” “frustrated” and “alarmed” at the result. 

Blatteau is concerned about the impact of potential cuts to the Department of Education on New Haven Public Schools, especially the Title 1 funds that the district relies on to fund education for low-income students. 

Undocumented and LGBTQ+ students may be disproportionately harmed by the second Trump administration, Blatteau fears. Policy changes on immigration and education could impact student mental health and performance, she warned. 

Her union’s members, she said, are “still doing a lot of processing.” 

“Some members were talking about the conversations that they were having with their students today, and the very real fears that students were sharing around deportation … but then also the beauty and the humanity that they saw in their students today, of students choosing community, choosing loving kindness and choosing to reinvest in their friends and their peers and their classrooms,” she said. 

Vincent Mauro Jr., Democratic town chair, said Trump’s “overwhelming” win was surprising, even for Democrats who were aware of his likely win. 

Democratic organizers and activists have consistently underestimated Trump’s political strength, Mauro acknowledged. Local activists who spend most of their time in New Haven can’t “fathom voting for Donald Trump,” he added. 

“But you have to also realize that the rest of this country doesn’t look like New Haven, and it doesn’t look like Connecticut,” Mauro said.

Party leaders will be looking closely at the numbers to try to understand Trump’s success and reach out to those voters more effectively, Mauro said. Most Trump voters were motivated more by cultural and social anxiety than economic concerns, he hypothesized.

State results were greatly successful for Connecticut Democrats, Mauro said. The party picked up seats in both chambers of the state legislature, possibly winning veto-proof majorities. Democrats won all of the state’s congressional races.

Barbara Vereen was not surprised by the result, but she had been hopeful that Harris would win. At some point, she stopped following the results trickling in close Senate and House races. 

“I needed a moment,” she said. Today, it seems, much of the city did. 

George H.W. Bush was the last Republican to win Connecticut in 1988. 

Ethan Wolin contributed reporting.