Snohomish County voters split elation, worry over Trump

ELECTION 2016: RESULTS • STORIES • DATA DASHBOARD

EVERETT — Snohomish County went blue as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump swept battleground states.

Snohomish County split 54.7 percent for Hillary Clinton and 36.5 percent for Trump. Both made stops in Everett. Only Trump held a public rally, attracting 10,000. No third-party candidate had earned more than 5 percent of the vote in the county .

Some local leaders were elated. Others worried.

Debbie Blodgett, president of the county Evergreen Republican Women’s Club, was at the Snohomish Event Center when Florida was called for Trump.

The news was cheered.

“I’ve been praying incessantly all day for our country to come back,” she said.

Chris Vallo, a Republican leader from Lake Stevens, said voters are tired of Clinton and “the establishment.”

“I say the silent majority has spoken,” he said.

Mukilteo activist and Trump supporter Tim Eyman said he felt punch-drunk.

“For me, this is like going to Woodstock in the ’60s,” he said from a Republican party in Bellevue.

In Lynnwood, city councilwoman Shirley Sutton, who is black, watched results while eating dinner at home.

“From what I see right now, I’m weeping for our country,” she said.

Sutton said she was thinking about 50 years ago, when her grandmother was following Bernie Sanders’ career. Sutton was not a fan of either major party candidate this year and questioned the integrity of both, she said.

Sanders “at least would have halfway high standards,” she said. “That’s what I’m feeling right now. We missed out.”

Richard Wright, chairman of the county Democratic Party, said he was “surprised like everyone else, but we’re feeling optimistic that votes are still being counted.”

The results show a country divided, said Democratic U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene of the 1st Congressional District.

“The question for all of us is figuring out how to come together and start solving problems,” she said.