They’ve taken down the giant Trump lawn sign, but inside their home in Hampton, New Hampshire Ben and Laura Soussan maintain an impressive collection of campaign memorabilia. They have dozens of red, white and blue credential badges they wore when they volunteered at Trump’s rallies. Some of them are signed by Donald Trump, as is Laura Soussan’s mobile phone case.
“So I carry Donald everywhere,” she joked.
WGBH News first profiled the Soussan’s more than a year ago. Trump hadn’t even won a primary yet, but the Soussan’s were so sure he’d become president they had already booked a hotel room for his inauguration.
“I’m so excited,” said Laura Soussan as she modeled a floor length gown she plans to wear to Trump’s inaugural ball.
If the outcome of the election is something of a fairytale for the Soussan’s, it’s closer to a nightmare for Elaine and David Ahearn. They also live along New Hampshire’s Seacoast and worked tirelessly for the candidate they were sure would win. Their candidate was Hillary Clinton.
“It never occurred to me in a million years that we could lose,” said Elaine Ahearn. “I couldn’t imagine people voting for a man who said the kind of things he said about women and insulting Gold Star families and the handicapped. I mean, this was real and horrible.”
Longtime democratic activists, the Ahearns have won and lost elections. They always move on, but not this time.
“Some local businesses that put Trump signs on their property and supported Trump,” said Elaine Ahearn, “I would never do business with them again.”
The Soussan’s say in the wake of the election they have also felt a distance with some people who opposed Trump.
“I do think this election it’s amplified because he’s such an outspoken person,” said Laura Soussan. “He’s not a politician used to mincing words, putting sugar coatings on every thought that he has.”
The Soussan’s realize what they see as candor other consider offensive. What they don’t get is why – for so many – Trump’s win is traumatic.
“If Clinton won, she’d be my president,” said Ben Soussan. “I would have said, okay, guess what, just like I did with Obama – guess what I did? I went to work. I feel like the opposite happened. To some people, the world was over. We saw people balling their eyes out.”
Elaine and David Ahearn say there’s good reason to cry. Trump’s election – to them – is even worse than another moment of deep political division: the 2000 presidential election. Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote, but after a hotly disputed recount in Florida, republican George W. Bush became president.
“I thought that George Bush was certainly not a person that I would ever have chosen to be President of the United States,” said Elaine Ahearn, “but he didn’t terrify me”.
“Donald Trump is for Donald Trump,” said David Ahearn. “I have no confidence in him whatsoever.”
“I think he’s the closet thing we have to a superhero,” said Laura Soussan, “helping so many families, yeah, he’s going to do a great job.”
Soussan says that’s what will bring the country together. For those who don’t share her optimism, she offers this reminder: one day the country will have another president.
