Students who supported both candidates discussed surprise about the election results at the Optimist’s first election watch party.

Jenna Salzman, freshman political science major from Fort Worth, said she expected Hillary Clinton to win Florida and several other key states that she didn’t win. She said the result had to do with voter turnout.

“That’s one of the biggest problems in America,” Salzman said. “We have one of the lowest voter turnouts in most Democratic countries. Turkey has a bigger voting turnout than we do and they just had a coup earlier this year.”

Grace Meroff, sophomore art education major from Cedar Park, said she’s less scared of Trump himself and more worried because so many people voted for Trump.

“I think I just started living in denial – like ‘Trump can’t win, he’s not real,'” Meroff said. “Well, he is. It’s official, he’s real.”

For more student reactions,