Most Tuesday nights at The Wort, a downtown Jackson hotel and music venue, you’ll find dancers swinging to live music by the band One Ton Pig. But on Nov. 5, Election Day across the U.S., it was a number of key races that kept heart rates up at the Teton Democrats’ election night watch party.
About 60 people mulled around the hotel’s banquet hall where a screen displayed local election results. With a drink in one hand and phone in the other, local advocates and candidates were also keeping close tabs on national races.
Maggie Hunt, chair of the Teton County Democratic Party, hosted the watch party and struggled to stay positive.
“Well, I as a matter of the way I live my life, I think globally, act locally,” Hunt said.
Across the room sat Clare Stumpf who works with the local housing advocacy organization ShelterJH. All of the candidates endorsed by their organization won in their local races.
“We contacted over a thousand voters, so if any margin is under 1000, I think we made a difference. We had about 30 volunteers working for us. We text bank, we phone banks we doorknocked,” Stumpf said.
Meanwhile, at the Republican watch party held at Sidewinders, just a mile down the road, about 30 attendees kept their eyes on a panel of television screens above the bar displaying Fox News, CNN and Comedy Central.
Cornelius Kinsey, treasurer for the Teton County GOP, didn’t want to talk about the national election but conceded that locally there wasn’t a lot of skin in the game for the Republican Party. Only one candidate ran under the Republican ticket.
“So locally, that’s all I care about. I don’t talk about the national stuff. I let them all have fun up there,” Kinsey said.
Victor resident John Farrell was the opposite. He cared mostly about the presidential race. As a former Teton County resident now living in Idaho, he decided to make the 45-minute drive on an icy night “over the hill” to attend the watch party with friends. Dressed in an American flag shirt, he described the presidential race as the most important election in his lifetime.
“The entire country is at stake for me. I mean, the two candidates could not be more different in their approach to how they would run this country,” Farrell said.
Ray Espinoza brought his 12-year-old son to Sidewinders. They were the sole Latinos among the roughly 30 attendees. Espinoza wore a t-shirt that read “I like my presidents like 40 and 45,” featuring pictures of Ronald Regan and Donald Trump, along with two pistols—a 40 and 45 caliber handgun.
“I think that it’s important for people to realize that conservatives aren’t necessarily old white guys. You know, some of us are young Hispanics who are concerned about the economy, concerned about the future for our kids. And it was important for us to represent the new Republican Party,” Espinoza said.
By 9:30 p.m. back at the Democratic watch party, votes were tallied and the election results became more clear. Commissioner Natalia Macker felt anxious and expressed concerns for the state of democracy. She says her party affiliation doesn’t shape how she governs.
“Very few decisions do we make that being a Democrat tells me how I’m supposed to vote on our local issues,” said Macker. “And so I think it also just reinforces our need to make sure that we’re really engaging with the community on issues, that we’re hearing lots of perspectives because we’ll get the best decisions when we have a broader range of ideas weighing in.”
Attorney Len Carlman just won his first race and joins Macker on the Teton County Commission.
“It’s a mixed experience for me. I’m grateful and pleased to be commissioner-elect for Teton County. And I’m greatly concerned about the well-being of our country,” Carlman said.
By 10 p.m. local races were called with a strong showing for the local Democratic party. Candidates and advocates shook hands, walked out and headed home. Only later did they learn the presidential race did not go in their favor. Instead, those who spent the night at Sidewinders were likely celebrating.
