GRANBY — For the first time in decades, voters in two Hampshire County towns cast a majority of ballots for a Republican candidate in a presidential election, while voters in a third county town supported the GOP candidate for the first time since 2000.
On Tuesday, Granby residents broke a winning streak for Democratic candidates over the last seven election cycles in that town when Donald Trump took 1,684 votes, 64 more than Hillary Clinton’s 1,620.
The margin of Trump’s victory was larger in Ware, where 2,189 people voted for Trump compared to 1,852 votes for Clinton, a difference of 337 votes. It’s the first time a Republican presidential candidate has won in that town in more than 40 years, according to statistics available online from the Secretary of State’s Office.
In Huntington, 611 voters cast ballots for Trump compared to 460 for Clinton, a 151-vote difference. The last time a majority of voters in Huntington supported a Republican candidate was in 2000 when former President George W. Bush was running against Democrat and then Vice President Al Gore.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Bill Johnson, chairman of the Granby Republican Town Committee said he was surprised by the results in his town.
“Granby over the years seems like it shifted more Democratic,” Johnson said, noting that the town’s Republican committee hasn’t been very active the past five or six years.
“I would like to take credit as the Republican chair but basically we haven’t been very active. It wasn’t from any outside push — it was just the people voting,” Johnson said. “I think a lot of people are still apprehensive with Donald Trump but they didn’t want to go with the continued policies of President Obama.”
Four years ago, Granby voters went for President Barack Obama, who received 1,862 votes against Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s 1,570 votes. A majority of voters also supported Obama in the 2012 presidential election in Huntington and Ware.
Johnson said he “begrudgingly” voted for Trump and is apprehensive about the president-elect.
“I hope the president-elect tones down his rhetoric. I thought his acceptance speech was one of the best I ever heard,” Johnson said. “I don’t think anybody wishes the president-elect to fail.”
Johnson said he hoped everyone would come together.
“Everyone has to remember it’s one country,” he said. “We all just need to pull together and work for a common goal.”
The last time the majority of voters in Granby supported a Republican was in 1984 when former Vice President Walter Mondale challenged incumbent President Ronald Reagan.
The vote was 1,432 for Reagan to 939 for Mondale, according to election statistics maintained by the Secretary of State’s Office.
Marie McCourt, chairwoman of the Granby Democratic Town Committee, wrote in an email that for the most part, Granby is a conservative town.
“In the past few years, we have more independent voters than we used to, however we are never surprised when the vote goes to the Republican side,” McCourt wrote. “As a Democratic committee, we had hopes that it would go our way, as the last presidential election did, but many of us knew there was a distinct probability that the town would vote on the Republican side.”
The committee, McCourt wrote, has 10 elected members with about six who were truly active. The efforts in this election cycle included visibility events for Clinton and state Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, as well as joining phone banks and active campaigning, according to McCourt.
“The thing I love about Granby when it comes to politics, though, is that we really try to be as nonpartisan as possible. In such a small town, it does no good to be mean to each other,” she wrote. “Democrats and Republicans stood together yesterday at the polls and treated each other with respect and friendship — because that’s who we are.”
McCourt added, “No matter on which side our beliefs land, we all try to remember that we need to work together as a community to solve local issues that affect all of our lives — and for this I am truly thankful to live where I do.”
“I can look any community member in the eyes today, knowing that we kept it civil and didn’t attack each other as people,” McCourt added.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.