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At Delco restaurant, watching Trump's unexpected rise to victory

No amount of beer flowing from the open bar could tamp the anguish and excitement in one corner of Delaware County Tuesday night: The race for president was so close that even Donald Trump's diehard fans couldn't believe what they were seeing.

Frank Lojewski of Ridley Twp far right) watches the late returns at a local GOP election watching party  at a banquet hall at Barnaby's in Prospect Park, Pa. on Nov. 8, 2016.
Frank Lojewski of Ridley Twp far right) watches the late returns at a local GOP election watching party at a banquet hall at Barnaby's in Prospect Park, Pa. on Nov. 8, 2016.Read moreELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer

No amount of beer flowing from the open bar could tamp the anguish and excitement in one corner of Delaware County Tuesday night: The race for president was so close that even Donald Trump's diehard fans couldn't believe what they were seeing.

As he scored early wins in the battleground states -- Ohio, North Carolina and Florida -- jubilation and shock gripped the crowd at Barnaby's, a hot spot of blue-collar Republicanism in Ridley.

Just before midnight, only blue states Pennsylvania and Michigan were undecided, standing between Trump and Electoral College victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

"Has Michigan come in?" 37-year-old John Taylor, a township worker, said animatedly as a crowd of fellow GOP loyalists gathered around a giant screen showing a Fox News broadcast of the shocking results.

"It's pretty crazy," said Jim Cartafalsa, 31, a committeeman who works as foreman at a nearby wastewater treatment plant. "I was unsure about it; I'm not going to lie."

The crowd had thinned long before the time Pennsylvania fell into Trump's column, after 1:30 a.m., and with it the presidency. This was not the night many expected. Not here, in Pennsylvania or across the country. Not even among the Republican faithful back at Barnaby's.

When the night opened, even Dan Diedrich, a lifelong Republican, was talking about the worst-case scenario.

"I'll be sick to my stomach," he said. "If she does win tonight, I don't even think she'll finish her four years, because I think she'll be impeached."

But the mood shifted from bright to downright electric as the 42-year-old Ridley Township man _ and more than 100 other Republicans _ watched returns pour in after polls closed at 8 p.m. Trump suddenly looked stronger than many had expected.

"Who would have thought that at 10 o'clock on Election Night they wouldn't have called Florida yet?" said GOP committeeman Chris Lenton, 54, swirling a cup of Diet Coke over ice as returns flashed on a giant TV hanging on the wall. "It's crazy, man. Man, it's crazy."

Judy Norris had given up hope on Trump at 9 p.m. But by 10:40 p.m., gathered with others around an iPad showing returns on CNN, the 69-year-old retired teacher was borderline ecstatic.

"I am feeling that my prayers are almost answered for Donald J. Trump to make America great again," Norris said, moments before CNN called Ohio for Trump.

For supporters of the real estate scion and reality TV celebrity, the cliff-hanger was the fitting culmination to a yearlong campaign of surprises.

When they had begun to trickle in around 8 p.m., more than a few Republicans rolled their eyes when asked about Trump. Two women said they had voted for Clinton, while throwing support for all remaining Republicans on down the ballot. Even some of Trump's more impassioned supporters said they would take whatever election result in stride.

Trump himself had made several nearby campaign appearances in recent months with the knowledge that this was fertile terrain, replete with blue-collar Republicans and nominally Democratic white men for whom Trump's angry message about immigration and trade had resonated.

Most everyone at the party had worked as poll volunteers or were functionaries of the Ridley Township Republican Party, which booked the banquet hall for the Election Night gathering.

Jennifer Most, 47, sipped a Long Island iced tea at the start of the night and spoke matter-of-factly about Trump.

"My mood's pretty upbeat," said the self-employed woman, who had spent 12 hours poll-watching in Ridley Township before congregating to see who had won after a campaign that cleaved the nation into two seemingly warring camps of Clintonites and Trumpsters.

"If he loses, I'll deal with it," said Most, the wife of a veteran. "Just as I did with Obama for four more years than I thought he needed to be in there."

Township Commissioner and longtime local party chief Bob Willert, 57, predicted a long hangover for these locals if Trump were to lose. This is fierce Eagles territory, and a hotbed of hostility toward the political status quo, as Willert found while knocking on doors in recent weeks.

"They don't take losing very well," Willert said.

At doorstep after doorstep as Willert canvassed for local Republican candidates, Ridley Republicans shocked him by asking about one and only one.

"People greet you at the door and they say, `Are you for Trump?' " Willert said.

It was something unprecedented, he said, in three decades of political organizing.

"Never seen the passion for a president like Trump," he said.

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