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Politics

Local GOP, Democratic Party Consultants Weigh In On Trump's Election

San Diegans at a Republican watch party at the U.S. Grant Hotel react to the news that Donald Trump won the presidency, Nov. 8, 2016.
Milan Kovacevic
San Diegans at a Republican watch party at the U.S. Grant Hotel react to the news that Donald Trump won the presidency, Nov. 8, 2016.

People around the nation woke up to the news that the next president of the United States will be Donald Trump.

In San Diego, Democratic political consultant Laura Fink said she was surprised and profoundly disappointed "because I see this as a repudiation of eight years of President Obama and the prospect of our first woman president in Hillary Clinton."

Jason Roe, a San Diego-based consultant for Republican political campaigns, found other reasons to be discouraged by Trump’s election.

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“There are some Republicans that are celebrating today," Roe said. "But as we look down the road, four and even eight years from now, there is likely a price to be paid."

The issue, he said, is Trump’s behavior and his regard for minorities and women.

Roe said there may be a chance Trump will modify his behavior as president, but he hasn’t seen anything over the last 18 months that indicates that he will.

“There’s a lot of diversity in America and that diversity is only going to increase," he said. "And if he is incapable of changing, Republicans are going to suffer down the road.”

Roe did hold candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic message responsible for the negative reaction Clinton got from many voters.

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“Democrats have evolved to rather than being a party of the working class to being liberal intellectual elites, that are fairly self-righteous in their beliefs that they know better how everyone should live their lives," Roe said.

Fink said she would not blame Clinton, or the message of the Democratic Party for the loss.

“I don’t see a large-scale rejection of the Democratic Party policy platform,” Fink said. “But I do see a significant amount of effort needs to be made to energize and to bring together the coalition that Barack Obama founded and that, by all of the indicators, shows that there is room for growth within.”

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