Election night

After weeks of campaigning, when the GOP county chair announced the showing of a video of highlights of the Romney campaign at the Washoe election night party, the applause was less audible than the groans.

But people were still willing to talk issues, both at the Republican gathering at the Peppermill and at the Grand Sierra where Democrats partied.

“Not only do we want Romney to win, we need Romney to win,” said David Ryan, speaking for himself and fellow Republican, Mark Juring, in the hours before President Obama took the presidential win. Both men are local business owners in the Reno area and staunch supporters of Romney-Ryan.

Like the majority of Americans—60 percent according to an Edison Group exit poll—Ryan and Juring place the economy at the top of the to-do list. And, like many Republicans, they blame the nation’s continuing hardships and stagnant economy on Obama’s “big government” policies.

“The strangle Obama has on small business is federal regulation,” Juring said.

Ryan also hoped for the ascent of state power and a diminished federal influence in the coming years.

“How do politicians in D.C. know what it takes for businesses in Reno to grow?” he asked.

Ryan and Juring were not the only Republicans who shared such a sentiment Tuesday night. Hardly a conversation strayed from the topic of America’s suffering economy at the GOP gathering. And if there was a reprieve, it was short-lived.

The Republicans’ hard focus on the economy comes as no surprise as their presidential candidate pushed economic recovery to the forefront of his campaign. Romney seemed to be attempting a similar dialogue of change as the one at the heart of Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Although the majority of Americans say the economy is their main concern in the coming years, Romney’s strict focus on economic recovery still failed to win him the presidency.

“A lot of younger voters like myself are conservative because they see the problems with the economy, and they see that Obama hasn’t done anything to fix it,” said Adam Kahan, a member of the College Republicans at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Kahan believes that many conservatives of the younger generation, like himself, find themselves a part of the Republican Party for lack of a better alternative. Presented with two mutually exclusive political parties, he chose the party with the values that he deemed closest to his on the economy.

“I don’t like President Obama. I really don’t like him,” said Kahan. “Now, that does not mean I am a Romney fan.”

Fellow College Republican Erin Collins, wouldn’t describe herself as a steadfast Republican, either. She also cites economic reasons for her support of Romney.

“I would consider myself fiscally conservative and socially liberal, which is typically thought of as a Libertarian view. I believe that the economy is more important than any social issue and that we need a president with a strong economic hand,” she said. “I believe Mitt Romney is that president.”

But, according to the Associated Press, exit polls show that Americans have just as much faith in Obama’s economic recovery plan as they do in Romney’s. Obama appealed to voters from a more human perspective. At their gathering, Democrats cited reasons many and varied for their continued support of Obama.

“I’m a single mom, and it was because of Obama that we were able to have health care and I was able to go back to school,” said Jenna Herzog. “I’m almost done with my degree now, and I can give my daughter the life that I always wanted to.”

“My wife has seizures, and if she loses her job and Romney got elected, she would be without health insurance,” another Obama supporter said. “To me, personally, it’s very important. Although I believe in all the big issues, I have a small issue that really made me vote Obama.”

Such stories seem to be the intangible bedrock of the Obama campaign, making the president seem more relatable. In the end, Obama won Nevada more easily than surveys had suggested, piling up a seven percent margin. Though he had already locked up an electoral vote majority by the time Nevada began reporting votes, there was still a huge cheer from the Democrats when the networks gave the state to Obama.