Angel Danchalski and their friends broke out into applause as a screen projected PBS News Hour’s live coverage of Democrats winning seats in the Senate and electoral votes in the presidential election.

But the next morning would inevitably disappoint them, as the Associated Press called the election for former President Donald Trump.

Prior to learning the results, Danchalski said they could not predict their reaction to if Trump would win, only that it would be negative.

“I’m just particularly very nervous about what’s happening in the election,” Danchalski said. “For the past few weeks I’ve been watching statistics sites like a hawk.”

Danchalski and a crowd of students and faculty watched the election results live from Vote Oswego’s election watch party.

Michael Baggett, a first-year political science major, felt optimistic about the election and his first time voting.

“No matter who gets elected, in another four years, if people don’t like who’s in office, they can try again,” he said.

Baggett went to his home district in Mexico County to vote in what he found to be a surprisingly short line. To Baggett, casting his ballot in-person was a “very American thing” and “culturally important.”

“I have a lot of faith in our government,” Baggett said. “Something I feel has been lacking in recent years.”

But others did not feel as positive as the night progressed.

Daniel Bineros felt nervous as he saw Trump’s electoral count increase and Vice President Kamala Harris’ stagnate. He voted for Harris in opposition to Trump’s tariffs and adversarial temper toward other countries.

“Trump wants to change so much in so short time,” Bineros said. “He wants to do it in a really fast and radical way that I don’t think would benefit the country as he wants to.”

Lillian Evans, director of the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion department, saw the turnout to the party as encouraging. Yet she still had mixed feelings about the impending results.

“Looking to other experts in the room, about how we won’t know until [later on],” Evans said, “gives me some angst and also makes me think I can go to sleep OK tonight too.”

Evans noticed a spike of energy this election cycle, both excitement and aggression.

“There is some very strong discourse that allows people to maybe not feel safe or heard or seen,” she said.

The recent incident of hate speech at the ALANA Peace March, in which a white motorist cursed “f*** you” at Black student marchers to go home, resonates as an example.

Baggett voiced a similar concern about the sharp political tension dividing the nation.

“I realize there is a lot of hate going towards other people who think differently than you,” he said. “It’s very important for people to understand that we’re not only Americans, but we’re all people.”

As the news coverage ended that evening, the watch party ended on positive terms. Danchalski’s table of friends counted down as the clock reached 9 p.m., one student airing out a “Happy New Year!” to close out the night.

Image by Evan Youngs