Pat Pullar flew to New York early Election Day anticipating a raucous presidential victory party for Hillary Clinton.
Instead, the longtime Clinton supporter and political pundit returned home to Clayton County mid-afternoon Wednesday exhausted, and not from quick-turnaround jet lag.
“My journey is complete,” Pullar said, referring to the two years of dogged campaigning she’d put in toward Clinton’s failed bid for president.
“I was expecting to be there when she comes out and accepts the victory and revel in the happiness,” Pullar said. “It was like a funeral there. It was as though somebody had died. I went into the Javitz Center thinking ‘we’re finally going to break through this glass ceiling’ and it didn’t happen.”
The Ellenwood resident who served as a Georgia delegate to the Democratic convention earlier this year said the Javitz Center, with its ceremonial glass ceiling, was packed.
By 11:30 Tuesday night, half the crowd had gone home, Pullar said.
Pullar hung around. But by 1 a.m. when Donald Trump had posted 248 electoral votes, Pullar figured “There was no way (Clinton) was going to catch up.” Pullar called it a night and headed back to her hotel room without an appearance from Clinton.
“It was very disheartening to see all those people feeling downtrodden.”
The next morning, as the reality of a Donald Trump presidency began to sink in, Pullar headed for the airport.
“I had those cards that said ‘Stronger Together’. I left all of the Hillary placards and signs in my hotel room. I left it all.”
As she waited for her plane home, she watched Clinton’s concession speech on CNN.
“It was a lot of hard work that seemed for nothing,” said Pullar, 64, who became one of Clinton’s earliest supporters in 2007. Pullar left to work for the Obama campaigns in 2008 and 2012. She returned to help Clinton’s bid for the White House two years ago.
“I wanted to have that ‘why not a woman?’ (experience). Why are we not considering a woman for president? That’s why it was so important to me.”
Pullar signed on wholeheartedly, hosting Clinton fundraisers, financing some of her field operations, manning phone banks, knocking on doors. She even has photos of her grandchildren with Clinton.
Pullar expressed deep satisfaction for the hard work that occurred during the campaign season in Clayton. Clinton saw a strong showing - nearly 84 percent of the votes cast in the presidential election went to Clinton.
“I’m glad the work we did in Clayton shows. It was a concerted effort of people who cared and got together,” Pullar said. She cited the works of Clayton Solicitor General Tasha Mosley; commissioners Sonna Gregory and Gail Hambrick; school board member Jessie Goree; Rep. Sandra Scott and Senators Gail Davenport and Valencia Seay.
On Wednesday Pullar, who has consulted on political campaigns over the last 40 years, did her own post-mortem of Clinton’s campaign.
“Every demographic that Obama got, she didn’t get. The Latinos didn’t vote for her like she thought. The Millennials, white women and African Americans just didn’t show up at the polls for her like they did for Obama.”
At the same time, she said Clinton must bear some responsibility.
“She didn’t take care of her base,” Pullar said. “When people started hearing they were being taken for granted, African-Americans started believing it.”
In the end, the 2016 presidential campaign is one Pullar won’t forget.
“We have never experienced this kind of vitriol in any election ever. Even the Obama election was never this nasty. There was still a level of respect that you maintained for one another and that certainly was not demonstrated in this election.”
Nonetheless, the Clayton County Democratic Chair is taking a deep breath, politically.
“I have adopted this philosophy: You vote and then you adapt.”
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