Dallas

Roller Coaster Ride for Dallas County Democrats at Election Night Watch Party

Dallas County Democrats gathered at the Hyatt Regency Dallas for an Election Night watch party that traded cheers and boos.

"Stay calm. Stay collected," Dallas County Commissioners Court Judge Clay Jenkins told the crowd from the podium. "We're going to win."

Hillary Clinton supporters took turns taking photos with a life-size cardboard cutout of the candidate. The atmosphere at the start of the evening was buoyant.

Early voting returns kicked the evening off on a high note for Democrats, but as states started reporting precincts and Trump surged ahead, election watchers fixed their eyes on the TV monitors.

Dallas is a blue county in a state that votes Republican. Election night 2016 was no different, as Donald Trump took Texas and its 38 electoral votes.

At 10 p.m. in Dallas, the polls closed in California. Predictably, the crowd roared and chanted, "Hillary, Hillary," as news outlets called California and its 55 electoral votes for Clinton.

At 11 p.m. neither candidate had reached the 270 electoral votes needed to win and few in the packed ballroom at the Hyatt Regency had left, opting to stick it out to the end.

"It's going to be a long night," said Jenkins.

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