Karen & I essentially “left” our childhood home of eastern Ohio (just west of Wheeling, WV) when we left for college in 1970. While we left physically, our hearts never left there and we took the core of who we were from there and never let it slip away. My mother’s family scratched a living from the land on a ridge in northern WV and my father’s family owned and operated trucks working in the coal mines of eastern Ohio. I come from people that always worked hard, were good neighbors and knew right from wrong. My father was not a church going man, but he believed in the Lord and insisted that his family attend church regularly.

Coal was the economic backbone of this area and as coal fell out of favor due to environmental concerns beginning three decades ago, unemployment rose to the mid-twenties. I always grieved for my family and peers that stayed there with the shrinking prospects for employment. I knew those folks knew how to work and work hard. They were resourceful, intelligent and dependable.

In April, 2008, then Senator Obama attended a fundraiser in San Francisco. He was addressing a well-educated, primarily wealthy audience. He was trying to explain to liberals on the coast why these rural “Pennsylvanians” seemingly voted against their own self-interests. Obama explained that he had been to small towns in western PA and across the Midwest where jobs had been gone for 25 years with nothing to replace them. He described these white, working class Americans with no college degree as “angry and politically confused people that keep voting for conservatives”. Then he went on to say, “it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to their guns and religion; or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations”.

This “guns and religion” quote slapped me in the face and you can maybe tell that I have not forgotten it. He had just insulted my family, my friends and my neighbors. While he tried to portray himself as the champion for the disadvantaged, his upbringing was about as far from the upbringing that I and my friends shared as it could be. He did not have a clue about how these people lived or thought and HE was criticizing their tendency to consistently vote for conservative principles.

I was angry. I was sure my “kin” would rise up in eastern Ohio (just like western PA) and defeat Obama in Ohio and PA in 2008, but it did not happen. (You have likely heard that since the 19th century, only JFK and FDR in 1944 have won the office of POTUS without carrying Ohio) The “hope and change” message was just too strong as young people and minorities turned out in record numbers to sweep Obama into office in 2008.

By 2012, I knew justice would be done. No one would vote for this guy again and 2012 proved that I did NOT have my finger on the political leanings of America and I should refrain from prognosticating ever again.

Tuesday evening, in Arizona, I rocked back in my chair at 3pm to begin my tally watch of the 2016 election. I was prepared to go all night but realistically, feared that the night might be over early with Hillary winning Florida. I had learned in the week leading up to the election that at 4PM eastern time, the anchors at FOX News hold a production meeting and the exit polls are shared with them. Data is collected by a third party firm from a sampling of people that are willing to answer a series of questions as they exit the polling place. This raw data goes to all networks participating in the consortium. Each network then has their own in-house analysts digest the data and draw their own conclusions. This information gives the anchors some clue as to how the evening will go which lets them build the drama and appear to be insightful.

I watched as FOX came on at 5PM, looking for some clue of what they knew. I read them as reserved, not solemn but not showing the genuine hope that I wanted them to show. As some of the exit polling was shared and the hour rolled out, I heard two themes that were not good news for the GOP: 1) The DEM ground machine had registered a much higher number of Hispanics across the country than expected and they were turning out in “droves” in Florida; 2) The gender gap was even wider than expected in the exit polling. These two facts were bad news for Trump and indicated the evening might be short. Even Megyn Kelly said she was co-hosting with Kelli Rippa in the morning and she was showing no concerns about a long and sleepless night.

I did not flip the channels enough, not wanting to hear CNN and MSNBC gloat about what was appearing inevitable – the Clinton polling lead coming into election night was holding or even expanding. At one point, Clinton was leading in Florida, Ohio and NC – “but it was early”, FOX reminded. “Right”, I thought. “This thing is over”. In hindsight, FOX was extremely conservative in calling states. The early exit polling had clearly painted the picture that Clinton would win and it colored their narrative and thinking. Even O’Reilly and Krauthammer argued whether Trump still had a chance and when Krauthammer told O’Reilly that Clinton was up 2% in Florida with 80% of precincts in, that quieted O’Reilly and I thought it was over. No one contradicted them, but ten minutes later, they showed Trump up in Florida by 0.5% with 91% of the vote in. Even then, no one at FOX picked up on that. With northern Florida and the Florida panhandle generally a strong GOP area, I would have thought that Trump had it. I just assumed they knew there were a lot of spot precincts in southern Florida still out which meant Trump was not projected to win. All the while, Ohio was still “too close to call” and I thought Trump had been leading in pre-election polls by 5%.

Things seemed to freeze in place for an hour with NC still “too close to call” and Clinton winning VA and leading in PA. Finally, they gave Florida to Trump and the focus shifted to Ohio. Karl Rove reads election night data as well as anyone and he said regarding Ohio, “If I were the Trump campaign, I’d be concerned.” I was sick. Apparently, the historically GOP strongholds in central Ohio were coming up short for Trump. Rove pointed to the Appalachia Counties of Ohio – two layers deep of counties along the east and southeast edge of Ohio. He said Trump would have to get a superior turn-out from these rural counties and log a superior advantage. Karen and I turned to each other and said, “not enough people live there.” We went on to say, “The guns and religion people’s time is NOW!” The leading FOX on-air analyst is from Ohio County, WV – the Wheeling area of northern WV. He said, “for now, for Trump, it is all about what is on both sides of where I was raised – from Belmont County in Ohio to Washington, PA in western PA. Trump needs these people to come his way big time”.

Again – I thought – it is up to these people that in 2008, Obama accused of “clinging to their guns and religion” and I prayed, “Dear Lord. Let there be enough of them tonight” – AND THERE WERE!

I am so proud of these family, friends and neighbors from western PA and eastern Ohio. Like so many folks across the Midwest, they are simply the most decent, hard-working, honest, gun-loving, God-fearing people on the planet and I love them! On election day, 2016, they made the difference.