On election night, Americans across the country held their breath in anticipation. November 9, 2016 will be a date that goes down in history, as a complete and utter shock for the American people. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is now the President-elect of the United States, winning the electoral vote with 276 electors to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s 217. Trump did not win the popular vote, making the 2016 election a mirror image of 2000 Bush v. Gore election, in which Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote, but was not chosen as President because his opponent Bush won the electoral vote. Trump dominated Clinton from the beginning, winning key battleground states like North Carolina and Florida. The real surprise, however, came when Trump defeated Clinton in notoriously “blue” Pennsylvania.

Much of Trump’s power in this election came from strong support from white, evangelical, uneducated males – whereas Clinton drew more support from people of color and educated white voters. The fact that the vote was split between educated and non-educated Americans is a prime example of the problems our nation will face as a result of this election. Trump’s win will also bring with it a wave of civil rights arguments. Trump has publicly made it known that he is anti-immigration, anti-muslim, racist, ableist, and misogynistic. With this in mind, it is hard to understand how America–a diverse country both ethnically, racially, and religiously – elected him as President, the leader of this country.

A prominent issue that plagued the Clinton campaign from the very start was the rise of third party candidates. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson as well as Green Party candidate Jill Stein, was one of the main causes of the Democratic slip at the polls. Liberal leaning Democrats voted for either one of the third party candidates as a “protest vote” against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic establishment, for not endorsing Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee. This “split” the Democratic vote in three different ways, making it less likely for the Democratic nominee to win the election. Even though third party candidates only made up around 2-3% of the vote in each state, the races between the front runners were so close that this only furthered the divide by taking potential Democratic votes away from the candidate. Votes were cast for a third party candidate that never had a chance to win the election in the first place. If only half of swing state Florida’s third party voters had switched their vote to Clinton she would have won the 29 electoral votes from the state, according to the International Business Times. Voter turnout was also at a record low this year in the African American and Hispanic communities not only on Election Day, but also in early voting, according to Politico.

As the hours passed by and votes were counted, it became more and more clear that Trump was going to win the Presidency. With the announcement of the official vote confirming Trump as the 45th President of the United States, Americans either rejoiced or were completely devastated. A Trump presidency will have many of mixed effects on the people of this country, depending on their socio-economic status, religion, race, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation and education level. For minorities, people of color, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, and non-Christians, a Trump presidency means oppression. It means fear. It means that hatred has won over love and acceptance, and that it is okay for people to be openly racist, misogynistic, homophobic, ableist, xenophobic, and anti-semitic. The fact that Donald Trump is now the President-Elect of the United States means that entire groups of American people were ignored and misrepresented.

The election results have also caused rioting and protests from Portland to New York City, calling for the eradication of the Electoral College as well as the removal of Trump from the presidency. After the election results were tallied, thousands of protesters flooded the streets of New York City, where according to the Washington Post, Hillary Clinton won seventy nine percent of the vote.

Trump’s ascension to the presidency will be filled with controversy, however it is now the job of the unsatisfied American people to speak up.