By Jenna Larson and Elianna Novitch

As Iowa returns came in, Iowa City community members had mixed feelings about the voters’ decisions.

Iowa returns favored Republican candidate Donald Trump, and local Republicans celebrated the decision while remaining anxious about national results.“I am humbly surprised,” said Meaghan O’Brien, member of University of Iowa College Republicans. “I came into tonight not knowing what to expect, and as a Republican, I am very excited about tonight’s election results. We have had a good showing in the House, I’m hoping for a good showing in the Senate, and if we win the presidency, that’s just icing on the cake.”

Although there were still some more votes to be counted, O’Brien kept her fingers crossed and was excited about the rest of last night’s results to come in.

“The polls indicated about a week ago that it was a possibility, but the polls aren’t always the standard,” said President of University Democrats Mitchell Dunn. We just don’t know until we know, especially in a state like Iowa, where it can go either way.”

Johnson County was unique in that it favored Clinton over Trump.

“If you look historically, Johnson County itself is usually an island of blue in a fairly red state,” said First Vice Chairman of the Johnson County Democrats James Tate.

It was a stronger night for Republicans than what most people expected, said Tim Hagle, a UI political-science associate professor.

“For weeks and weeks, I thought for sure that Clinton was going to win Iowa because even though the Trump supporters had a lot of enthusiasm, the Republicans caught up, and there just wasn’t as much enthusiasm for Clinton,” he said.

Though Trump took Iowa, Democrats remained hopeful about the national results.

“No matter what happens on Nov. 9, no matter what we wake up to, we switch to advocacy mode,” Dunn said. “That’s when we work really hard to advocate for our party, for our candidates, for our policies, no matter what the situation may be.”

Early this morning, the Associated Press called the presidential election for Trump.

“I am completely surprised,” O’Brien said. “I thought Donald Trump would be in Iowa’s favor but I had no idea that he would lean in the nation’s favor.”

While O’Brien was happily surprised, others such as Dunn were devastatingly shocked.

“I don’t think anybody predicted this, and it’s shocking,” Dunn said. “[We are] electing a bigot, somebody who is going to set the clock back 50 years. That’s depressing, but we have to continue to fight because there is an election every year. The fight isn’t over; the push continues on after today.”

Trump won the Electoral College; the popular vote was neck and neck.

“I am a Republican supporter and happy with a Republican presidency,” O’Brien said. “I think that Hillary Clinton would be disastrous to America’s values and economy.”

For O’Brien, being a Republican is all about her morals and beliefs and is proud of that no matter who ended up being elected.

“People thought that Trump would lose pretty easily, but it’s not the case,” Hagle said.