(This story was updated and expanded Nov. 8 at 10:40 p.m.)
[B]URLINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton easily won Vermont in Tuesday’s election — the first win of the night called for the former U.S. secretary of state in her battle against Republican Donald Trump.
Clinton’s win — called by The Associated Press just before the polls closed at 7 p.m. — gives her three electoral votes in her quest for 270.
While Vermont was a Republican stronghold up until the 1980s, it has become one of the most reliably blue states in the country.
The Vermont secretary of state reports that Clinton won 61.4 percent of the vote and Trump captured 32.4 percent. Third party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein together garnered 6 percent.
The last Republican presidential candidate to win Vermont was George H.W. Bush in 1988. President Barack Obama won more than 65 percent of the Green Mountain State vote in both his 2008 and 2012 campaigns.
Trump visited Burlington on a chilly evening in January, and he narrowly won the Vermont Republican primary in March. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders won the Democratic primary, crushed Clinton with 86 percent of the vote.
Trump and Clinton each had just one paid staffer in Vermont.
Darcie Johnston was Trump’s state director, distributing signs and organizing meetings for Trump supporters. Most of Trump’s Vermont resources and volunteers, however, were directed to organizing efforts in nearby New Hampshire in the final weeks of the race.
Nick Carter, a veteran of Sanders’ presidential bid, was Clinton’s Vermont state director.
Carter also directed resources to New Hampshire, where several hundred volunteers made calls remotely to swing states, including North Carolina. Hundreds of Vermont Clinton supporters also journeyed to New Hampshire to knock on doors in some of the larger communities, including Littleton and Lebanon.
Carter, who served as Clinton’s National Progressive outreach director, also spent time persuading pro-Sanders political groups — like MoveOn.org and Howard Dean’s Democracy for America — to back Clinton.
Voters expressed anxiety and frustration about the national race throughout Vermont on Tuesday, with many lamenting what might have been if Sanders were the Democratic presidential nominee.
A number of people said they wrote in Sanders, or voted for third party candidates.
Jennifer Williams in Norwich voted for Hillary Clinton without qualms.
“This is the first time in my life that I’m thoroughly embarrassed by one of the candidates and his behavior,” Williams said. “I’m embarrassed to be an American when other countries look at us and see Donald Trump as a candidate.”
Norwich resident Ian Doyle, who works in the defense industry, couldn’t bring himself to vote for either major party presidential candidate so he voted for Gary Johnson.
“Trump is not someone I can trust leading our country, and Hillary, for someone with a defense background — I can’t trust someone who can’t handle sensitive information.”
Susan Vanderpool, a lifelong Democrat from St. Johnsbury, said she voted for Trump.
“He’s a no holds barred kind of guy,” she said. “He just wants to take charge and get things done. I don’t even know what Hillary’s message is.”
Barbara Thurston, a lifelong Republican from St. Johnsbury, also said she voted for Trump.
“I don’t want a woman president because I believe a man belongs in the presidential office and not a woman,” Thurston said. “I don’t know if she can do her job. I know she’s been in it a long time and she has experience, but I want to try somebody new.”
Thurston expressed frustration that establishment Democrats and Republicans “don’t listen.”
She said Clinton exemplifies an out-of-touch politician, and reiterated that she didn’t believe a woman was capable of the job.
“My mother was Republican. She lived to be 102,” Thurston said. “If she knew that Hillary was in there I think she’d roll over in her grave.”
No matter which candidate they supported, voters said they were ready for the campaign season to end.
One man wearing suspenders in Hardwick said he was most excited for the political TV ads to stop.
“I can’t wait until it’s just drug companies pushing all the ads on television, not politicians,” he said. “Maybe there will even be a truck ad here and there.”
