Growing up in Hong Kong, Lily Hong Campbell idolized Donald Trump as a businessman. On Tuesday, she had her first opportunity to vote for him.<\/p>\n
Campbell, a seasonal Juneau resident for 11 years and an American citizen since 2004, cast her first-ever presidential vote for a man who inspired her to enter business.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s been successful enough since then to afford a $2,000 flight back to Juneau for Election Day and an opportunity to work the polls in the Lemon Creek precinct.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to vote. I want to volunteer. I want to be here for the country,\u201d she said Tuesday morning. \u201cIt\u2019s very exciting for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Backers of Hillary Clinton might not agree \u2014 after all, their candidate was the one who lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to get Ju-Ju; we need to change the vibes in here,\u201d called Nancy Courtney, chairwoman of the Tongass Democrats, to a tense and sparse crowd in a back room of the Rockwell restaurant about 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
The Tongass Democrats had booked the room for a celebration of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party nationwide, but few seemed in the mood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t what I was hoping to see, but let\u2019s see how this all plays out,\u201d Courtney said at the time.<\/p>\n
Later, as the result became apparent, she offered her best-guess analysis.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, there\u2019s a very angry electorate that wants change,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
David Woods wasn\u2019t angry, but he did want change. When he voted about 11 a.m., he was one of many at the Juneau ferry terminal who cast a vote for Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe may not be perfect,\u201d Woods said of Trump, \u201cbut maybe this will shake things up and it\u2019ll all work out.<\/p>\n
At Northern Light United Church, polling place for the Juneau No. 2 precinct, Staci Malaby brought her 6-year-old daughter Ella and her stroller-borne son Laney to the polls.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was fun,\u201d Ella said of the experience.<\/p>\n
Asked who she picked for president, Staci looked to her daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe girl,\u201d Staci said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was actually me that picked her,\u201d Ella piped up.<\/p>\n
Staci added that she felt Clinton was the most qualified among the two principal candidates.<\/p>\n
Likewise, Nicky Love \u2500 also voting at Northern Light \u2500 picked Clinton.<\/p>\n
She brought her son, a third-grader, to the polls \u201cto show him how easy and important (voting) is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also with her was her 4-year-old daughter Sally.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, there\u2019s always a candidate that\u2019s a definite no,\u201d Love said of her presidential choice. \u201cI voted for Hillary because I don\u2019t want Donald.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Lemon Creek polling station inside an Alaska Electric and Light garage, Campbell said she\u2019s been a fan of Trump for a long time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watched (Trump) ever since I was young,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to learn something from this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s someone who understands business, she added. \u201cThe money doesn\u2019t just come in. You have to go and get it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campbell followed that lesson, becoming successful enough that she was able to fly back to Juneau from her winter home, even though it cost more than $2,000 and she had to ask a favor from her boss.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re working for the country, then yes,\u201d she recalled him saying when she described being a poll worker.<\/p>\n
Trump had some controversial moments during the campaign, not least when he described his attitude toward women and fame.<\/p>\n
Campbell was asked if those comments bothered her.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. He\u2019s a human being,\u201d she said, explaining that people can express the same idea differently. \u201cSome people are sensitive; some people are not sensitive. \u2026 It\u2019s his personality.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Davis, voting in the Mendenhall Valley for Libertarian Gary Johnson, had a different take.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re both evil,\u201d he said of Clinton and Trump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Growing up in Hong Kong, Lily Hong Campbell idolized Donald Trump as a businessman. On Tuesday, she had her first opportunity to vote for him. Campbell, a seasonal Juneau resident for 11 years and an American citizen since 2004, cast her first-ever presidential vote for a man who inspired her to enter business<\/a>. She\u2019s been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":3053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-3052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3052"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}