To the surprise of pollsters, Democrats and establishment Republicans, Donald Trump won the election and will be the next president of the United States.
That shock was especially felt in Chicago and Illinois, where Hillary Clinton won the state by 16 percent, and over 50 percent in Cook County. Several prominent Chicago tech leaders have been major supporters of the Clinton campaign (including venture capitalist J.B. Pritzker, who tweeted he was manning the phones for Hillary on election day), and members of President Obama's analytics team have launched civic startups in the city including Civis Analytics and Timshel.
Chicago tech and startup leaders took to Twitter to express their analysis of the election, concerns and thoughts on moving forward.
Here's a look at what they had to say.
Gaby Spartz, cofounder of Dose
#ElectionNight pic.twitter.com/1Mm7zYMDN2
— Gaby Spartz (@GabySpartz) November 9, 2016Cards Against Humanity
pic.twitter.com/rnR7QCtghQ — CardsAgainstHumanity (@CAH) November 8, 2016
George Bousis, founder of Raise
Crazy pic.twitter.com/4yov620yLa — George D. Bousis (@GBousis) November 9, 2016
Logan LaHive, cofounder of Belly
The somber tone of our office is palpable. I wish I had words. — Logan LaHive (@loganlahive) November 9, 2016 Justyn Howard, CEO of Sprout Social
Allies, Muslims, Mexicans, Women, LGBTQ, African Americans - we love you. We'll do better. The rest of the world, this isn't who we are. — Justyn Howard (@Justyn) November 9, 2016
Rishi Shah, cofounder of ContextMedia
Both of these are real to me. Really sad night. But we've got to lean into this, not lean out. This fire is only going to grow. pic.twitter.com/Xq3vmLhpFx — Rishi Shah (@RishiShah) November 9, 2016
John Roa, founder of Roa Ventures
we need "i tried" stickers
— John Roa (@johnroa) November 9, 2016
Jessica Droste Yagan, CEO of Impact Engine
So incredibly disappointing. https://t.co/65tdZ9U6eJ
— Jessica Droste Yagan (@drosteyagan) November 9, 2016Harper Reed, former CTO at Obama for America
Well. This sucks to be right about: https://t.co/r9Xf5sO5Y5 Looks like we did underestimate President Elect Trump. — harper (@harper) November 9, 2016 Katy Lynch, founder of SocialKaty
Woke up to a giant, orange, threatening-looking cloud hanging over the United States this morning.
Going back to sleep.
— Katy Lynch (@thekatylynch) November 9, 2016
Jennifer Brandel, cofounder and CEO of Hearken
"They." "Them." "Those people." These are the words that signal the dangerous, sad, distancing and "othering" that's brought us to now.
— Jennifer Brandel (@JenniferBrandel) November 9, 2016
Fred Hoch, CEO of ITA
Now GenX time to get to work ....
— Fred Hoch (@FredHoch) November 9, 2016Jeffrey Carter, manager at West Loop Ventures
1) If you were a Clinton supporter, spare me the drama. When Obama was elected, I disliked it. But, we survived. It wasn’t good.
— Jeffrey Carter (@pointsnfigures) November 9, 2016
2) In 2008, we enacted really bad policy. It’s been trending the other way since. Obama was a GREAT candidate. So he won. Media enabled
— Jeffrey Carter (@pointsnfigures) November 9, 2016
Emile Cambry, founder of BLUE1647
All I can say is "wow" over and over. And over again. Woooooow
— EmileCambry (@EmileCambry) November 9, 2016
Rick Desai, cofounder of Dashfire
Be better. Work harder. Do more. Give more. Love more.
— Rick Desai (@rickdesai) November 9, 2016
Bryan Johnson, founder of Braintree and OSFund
Paralyzing unease stems from a new set of emerging norms that were previously thought impossible. A deck reshuffled.
— Bryan Johnson (@bryan_johnson) November 9, 2016 Michael Slaby, founder of Timshel
"Find the untapped potential and opportunity for all Americans" @realdonaldtrump -- tomorrow starts the work of holding him to this promise.
— Michael Slaby (@slaby) November 9, 2016
