The 2016 election is one for the history books. With no previous held office or military background, businessman Donald Trump became the 45th President-elect of the United States of America just before 3 AM on November 9th.

Polls leading up to the election were promising for the campaign of Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Most of them showed solid numbers across the nation and in the key blue states that Trump needed to win in the Rust Belt. Analysts expected that North Carolina (15 electoral delegates) and Florida (29) would be the two nail-biting battleground states. Moreover, most election forecasts gave Hillary Clinton a commanding lead, such as in the New York Times Election Forecast, which predicted an 85% chance of the election being handed to Hillary Clinton.

A path to 270 electoral college votes seemed simple for Clinton. She just needed to hold all the states that tend to lean Democratic, and pick up one battleground state, which was thought to be Nevada due to a recent insurgence in Latino voting.

As voting time came around, Democrats were starting to get worried. They needed the minority voters in order to win this election. As expected, the black voter turn-out was down, so strategists were relying on the rising Latino voting population, but it was not enough.

Donald Trump quickly turned the United States Republican-red, and by the end of the night, he had clear leads in almost every battleground state, including North Carolina and Florida. However, he still needed more votes to clinch the election.

While Trump plans to build a wall to the United States’ southern border, he broke through another, the blue wall in the Rust Belt, an area of the United States that Clinton never thought she would have to fight for, because they have never voted red. With slight victories in Wisconsin (10) and Pennsylvania (20), the Clinton campaign was doomed. The election that was supposedly “rigged” in their favor was over.

“I am disappointed in how ugly the election got. Both candidates are at fault…[the election] ultimately destroyed the moral of America,” shared Central’s permanent substitute teacher, Jeannette Scoggins.

Donald Trump has ran a campaign of vulgar rhetoric, throwing nasty insults at several groups of people, including Latinos, women, the disabled, African Americans, Muslims, war heroes, and his favorite — the media. News outlets have had a big problem with predicting Trump’s actions from the very beginning, which is why many ignored the movement he was creating during the Republican Primaries.

“Most of his beliefs appealed to the population of the United States. He is a businessman and people think he can use his wisdom to make America great again,” shared sophomore Jacob Rogers.

Nevertheless, Hillary Clinton had major flaws too. The ghost of her time as Secretary of State haunted her. The tragic events of Benghazi had many believing she was the direct cause of the death of several Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. Additionally, her failure to have ultimate transparency with the email controversy caused many voters to have doubts in Clinton’s trustworthiness. The F.B.I. director’s vague letters to Congress seems to have played a direct role in Clinton’s failure to win the election.

“I believe America just wasn’t ready for a female President,” said Scoggins.

Falling short of 270 electoral college votes, Hillary Clinton will still go down in history as the first female to run as a major political party candidate in an election that American will never forget.

It is imperative that the United States of America unite around our 45th President, Donald J. Trump. Thousands and thousands of men and women have died for our country, and not accepting the conclusion of election is a disgrace to their sacrifice. Ultimately, America must respect our Constitution, but if you disagree with someone’s opinions, respect them and fight harder for the election of 2020.