'I'm John King, and this is All Over The Map. For the last year and a half, my team and I have been traveling all over the country, visiting and revisiting the same states, repeatedly interviewing the voters who, because they lived in Iowa, New Hampshire — that's early on — then Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, well, they lived in a battleground, so they wielded a lot of power in this election. We really got to know a lot of these voters and we're grateful, so grateful for their time, their hospitality. I interviewed some of them 3 or 4 times. We talked about their lives, their work, their struggles, their fears and their hopes. We talked about their vote. Of course, some of them from the beginning were certain they were going to vote for one candidate or one party. A lot of them, though, were ambivalent, didn't like their choices back when it was Biden-Trump and even when it was Harris-Trump. We shared a lot of these conversations right here on the podcast, though those were just a fraction of the 86 people I talked to as part of this project. The election, of course, is behind us now, and in some ways it was a stunner of an outcome. After months of polls showing the former President Donald Trump and the vice president, Kamala Harris, were in a dead heat in all of the swing states, Trump, in the end pulled off a huge win, especially from an Electoral College perspective. He took all seven of the key battlegrounds and he won the popular vote. For him, that's the first time in three campaigns. For Republicans, that's the first time their nominee has carried the popular vote in 20 years. And Trump made inroads everywhere. He got more black votes. He got a higher percentage of Latino votes. He improved his standing in the suburbs. He improved his standing even where he was already strong in rural and small town America. So we're going to return today to the voices of the people we've gotten to know in the last year and a half. We've tried to understand how they think. Try to understand how this election was playing in their community. Try to understand just what they would do in this unprecedented American political moment.

What hurts me the most is the amount of Latinos that voted for him.

I think a lot of people are hurting right now, especially women. But I think the best choice is Trump in office.

I think that I was duped. I think a lot of people around me were in the closet about how they were going to vote.

I have so much hope. So much hope.

Some of these folks you've heard from before, if you've been following and listening to this podcast, others you might recognize if you saw our pieces in this series on TV or read them at CNN.com. You'll hear first from some who supported Donald Trump, some who felt they voted not for a candidate but against Trump, and some who were excited to vote for vice President Harris. We're going to let them speak for themselves.

Yeah, my name is Andy Konchek and I live in Dover, New Hampshire. I'm going to try to speak a little louder and clear because I'm on a commercial fishing vessel right now, and there really is no quiet place to go to while you're out at sea, so.

Language also knows. I live in Macomb County, Michigan.

My name is Rachel. I live in Glen Allen, Virginia.

I voted for Donald Trump because when he was in office, he ran for this country like a business. He wasn't paid off from other large corporations and there was no, like, quid pro quo. I'm feeling pretty good about the outcome. I'm not going to lie. When I woke up on the boat and found out who won, it's not like I'm going to say I didn't smile.

I voted for Donald Trump for this election 2024. I think they will be able to save what's left of the country. We've got an immigration issue, we have inflation and we have crime. We have cost of living, rights getting violated. There's a lot of things. And I just feel like Trump is going to save what's left of our country. And I just felt like we needed a new direction. I voted Democrat both times for Obama. And then I voted Democrat for Joe Biden. And I just feel like nothing has changed. And I just got tired doing the same thing, same thing and then expecting a different result. So I decided to try something different.

I voted for Donald Trump because what he's done in the past and what he says he's going to do in the future, it gives me hope. You know, we're coming off of four years under Biden and Harris's administration. Everything costs more. People don't feel as safe. The education system has, has failed our children. We feel like there's not law and order. We feel like as Americans, our country is slipping away from us. And Donald Trump comes in and tells us we're going to make America great and it's going to be America first policies. And as much as I love all people, this is the country I live in. I want to be successful in my country. I want my children to be successful.

I think he won because people are tired of the borders and letting illegal immigrants in. Funding them instead of our own homeless people and our veterans. And also because he was running against Kamala Harris, who's been VP for four years and has done absolutely nothing in my eyes except lie.

I feel like people made a statement. There's no way that somebody's going to be able to say it was test or voter fraud or anything like that, because he won in a landslide. You can't even question it, because he won the popular vote. He won the swing states. So I'm glad that's out the way now. I think a lot of people that's hurting right now. And know, people are really upset, especially women. But I think the best choice is Trump in office.

'I was taken aback by some of the responses to his win. I know people would feel disappointment, but the calls on social media to kill Trump. It's kind of disgusting. I don't recall seeing all of that after the Biden-Harris win. And I hope that that gets remedied quickly, because that's no way to speak about an incoming president. And it's no way to speak about anybody on social media.

Think the only thing that surprised me about all this is how disrespectful people are to each other. What surprised me, it was people who looked like me that was the most disrespectful. I expected people to relate to me, and I didn't realize how many people that did not relate to me, or they related to me, but they was voting for her because she's a black woman. Or they was voting for, her not because of policies, but because they didn't like Trump. That surprised me because I know a lot of people who lost jobs or people who didn't lose jobs knew somebody who did lose jobs, and I expected them to relate to my pain. We wanted him to be the change, and I think that's what it is. It give us hope that we can be something, because a lot of us feel like we losing everything, and no one cares. And Trump is saying a promise that he's going to do the things to bring us whole again. That's the a reason why people vote for Trump. That's the main reason why I vote for Trump.

I like to see the country come together as one because it's so divided. Blue or red. There has to be a way to solve it. I mean, not everything can be solved because people on both sides are salty when it comes to certain issues. I'd also like to see a little bit of morality on both sides if you know what I mean.

Not excellent one aspect. But to work on bringing us all together right now, because there's so much division, there's so much hate, there's so much anger, there's so much anxiety and so much things going on. I'm expecting Trump to bring peace and bring hope again, but I'm also expecting Trump to fix what's hurting us right now. We need help right now with immigration, with crime, with inflation, with jobs. So I expect Trump to come in the door and make that happen ASAP. I exepct unity at this moment. And that's it.

My hope is that as some time goes by and people see that, no, he's not coming to take away any of your rights that, you know, abortion rights, or I don't even know what they're fearful of. LGBTQ rights. He's, no one's, look. Abortion is a state, right so I find that odd that it's even in an issue in the presidential election. But he's going to make it so that our children have hope. So that we have hope so that future of America holds hope. This nation is, it's beautiful. It's amazing, and it's imperfect. We need somebody who's going to be a strong leader and who's going to be a president, who's going to enforce law and order. Who's going to be a president to put our country first. Who's going to consider the people who are here. And I hope that it's unified. I hope people lose their fear and I hope that people see that he's going to make this country better. We're all going to come together and it's going to be better. It's I have so much hope. So much hope.

My name is Cynthia Sabatini. I live. In Media, Pennsylvania. Which is suburban Philadelphia.

I'm Joan London, and I live in Berks County, Pennsylvania, about 50 miles west of Philadelphia.

I waited until 5:00 Tuesday, November 5th, because I really could not make up my mind as to whether I truly wanted to cast a vote for Kamala Harris. I ended up voting for Lisa Murkowski, senator from Alaska. I could not vote for Harris because I questioned her authenticity with respect to her views. They've changed radically, and I really thought she was running more towards the middle merely to get elected.

I voted for Vice President Harris. That was a vote that even six weeks ago I couldn't visualize. I'm a former Republican, had been since registering to vote in 1985. What changed my mind and my vote was the second presidential debate when President Trump said that the war in Ukraine had to be settled by negotiation, meaning territorial concessions, because President Putin had nuclear weapons and we'd be in World War III. That was in my way of thinking, a give in to the former head of the KGB, which was not an acceptable answer for this 1980s vintage college Republican. I had other differences with former President Trump. The Ukraine answer was the last straw. And for the first time in my life, I voted for a Democrat for president. I felt that it was better to have a leader in office with whom I disagreed on many policies and argue over those, and have a president who understands America's obligations to come to the aid of a sovereign democracy that was invaded.

With respect to my feelings about the election results. I'm not in the least bit surprised. I really thought that Trump would win. I'm not even surprised that he won the popular vote. I think he and his campaign made a concerted effort to go into states that are blue states and speak to the population who had predispositions to voting for Trump. I think what I'm surprised about is his margin of victory and that the election could be called as quickly as it was. I really thought we would be waiting days for this.

The Donald Trump victory did not surprise me. What did surprised me, though, was that Donald Trump won all of the blue wall states. I was expecting them to be far more competitive. In my opinion, Trump won another term mainly on the economy. He paid attention to people in rural communities and small towns who believed that both parties forgot them. I can't argue with that. President Biden, by staying in the race as long as he did, probably bears some responsibility for this result. But regardless, what needs to happen now is healing and reconciliation. People have spoken.

What I'd like to happen next is to have him start addressing who he'd like to put in various cabinet positions, and I would like to see him choose people who have solid records in the respective areas for which they will serve in the administration.

We should start focusing on where there is agreement and work from there to resolve disagreement. And we need to stop vilifying the other side. No, you're not automatically a bigot because you voted for Donald Trump. Nor are you automatically a socialist because you voted for Kamala Harris. I wish we'd stop the you're either with me or against me thinking. What I hope will happen is the parties will recognize that most of the country is more centrist. I believe that we're a center right country. We need candidates who stop playing to the extremes.

When we come back, the voters who came out of Tuesday disappointed or worse.

My name is Christine Nguyen, and I'm from Atlanta, Georgia.

My name is Melissa Cordero and I live here in Tucson, Arizona.

I am Zoila Sanchez and I live in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I voted for Kamala Harris because I believed our shared values, our principles and desired future just mattered so much more than whatever Trump brought to the table.

I voted for Kamala Harris because I believed in her commitment to justice and equality. As a BIPOC queer person and a veteran, representation matters deeply to me.

Of course, I voted for Kamala Harris. She was going to fight for the rights of our children and grandchildren and, of course, for women's rights.

I'm feeling disappointed, sad and stressed about the future. My entire neighborhood felt subdued on Wednesday morning. And more than anything, I was just shocked at how final and conclusive the election results turned out to be. I think people were so impatient and anxious for a change that they felt any change was better than none. And I think that's why Trump won the race.

I'm feeling disappointed, but not entirely shocked. I will say I had no idea they had that kind of momentum behind them. I think that I was duped. I think a lot of people around me were in the closet about how they were going to vote. And it certainly showed on social media after the fact. The election results reflect the ongoing divisions in our society, and it's so evident that the Democratic Party's centrist approach has alienated many progressive voices. The events of the last few days have shown just how polarized we are. And it's so frustrating to see how many people feel unheard, including myself. I believe Trump won because he effectively mobilized his base and tapped into the frustrations of his followers. And other Americans, apparently. The Democratic Party's move towards centrism, as I've already mentioned, may have left some voters feeling like there wasn't a clear, bold alternative, which I think many of us truly want better candidates. Although I thought Kamala would have been perfect. Many people prioritize issues like the economy, immigration, immigration especially living here in Tucson, Arizona, and seeing that directly, it's heartbreaking. But, you know, Trump addressed those directly, and the Democrats seem to be hesitant to take stronger stances like what exactly she was going to do. I would have liked to see a a clap back to Project 2025.

I feel that Donald Trump is a disgrace for our country by sowing division. He never stopped insulting immigrants, forgetting that this country was built by immigrants for immigrants. He never stopped seeing how immigrants were poisoning the blood of this country. What hurts me the most is to find out the amount of Latinos that voted for him without really realizing the damage he can cause us.

I want Democrats to hopefully control the House. My fingers are crossed that there will be enough smart and courageous people working in the White House, in the courts and the government to keep things in check, at least until the next presidential election.

I want to see a shift within the Democratic Party towards embracing more progressive policies and actually being true to them rather than catering to centrists or right leaning agendas. I think it's crucial for leaders to listen to and uplift the voices of BIPOC and LGBT communities as we are going to be suffering greatly. I hope that I am exaggerating what I think the next few years are going to be like. I am devastated. I'm angry, but I will remain hopeful and I will continue to do the work.

All I can do for now is to hope that he doesn't come through. Or his Project 2025 does not come to fruition. Hopefully those were all just words and they don't become actions. All we have to do now is pray for our country.

I'm here in the studio one last time with Allie Malloy, producer extraordinaire, the maestro of the All Over The Map Team.

John, what a week. You spent most of it at the wall showing Americans the results in real time, 12 hours straight. You had a lot of info to process. But what surprised you most now, looking back?

'The number one surprise was how quickly we knew, in part because the states counted faster, and in part because Trump was running up such big early margins in the states that matter. In the end, those margins did come back to a more competitive place. So that tells you what? Harris actually had a path. It doesn't look like that when you look at the map and it's all filled in red. All seven battleground states. Now, that should not be a surprise. Elections do tend to break late and we live in a nationalized climate. So when they break, they tend to break one way. And they broke for Trump. We came back from our last trip thinking maybe there was a little bit of Harris momentum. The question was, was it enough? Well, we know the answer now. The answer is no. Donald Trump made gains in his foundational areas, rural America and small town America. He made marginal gains in the suburbs. And we know from the exit polls and again, this will be scrubbed a little bit and what we know today won't be exactly what we actually know a year or two from now when we scrub it a little better. But he definitely made some gains among Black voters and Latino voters. So he made gains everywhere. And Harris lost from from the Biden coalition. We talked about this the last time. If you're going to have some subtraction from your coalition or the last person's coalition, then where's your addition? And so the Democrats have a lot of soul searching to do to figure out what happened. But it's clear two things happened. In places where people make $75,000 a year or less, donald Trump won resoundingly. That's about the cost of living. That's about, we want change. That's about, we remember when he was president. Yeah, it was crazy. It was chaotic. But my mortgage rate was cheaper. My food was cheaper. I got to take my kids on a vacation. I bought a car back then. They wanted that pre-COVID thing when life was good and Trump was president. It's almost not about him, not about the name. It's about how it was. Harris was Biden. Harris was the incumbent. Harris was the status quo. People wanted change. The other surprise on the map were the margins in North Carolina and Georgia. States that the Democrats think are trending their ways. And yet look at the margins. Again, culturally, more conservative. The Trump campaign, he may have been meandering as a candidate. Their advertising was very specific. She's a San Francisco liberal. She hangs out with the squad. She supports spending your tax dollars on transgender rights and your tax dollars on undocumented migrants at a time when you can't pay for your groceries. It was very smart, very smart Trump campaign. They pushed her left and they made it seem like, you know, she cares about other people more than she cares about you. So you see those margins there and it tells you, okay, Democrats, you thought those things were coming your way. Again, time to go back to school.

Right. I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this question, but are you surprised with the results after spending the last 15 months on the road?

Um, no. We didn't talk about this publicly because it's not our job to do this. But when we came back from just about every trip, we would have a little check in. Right? Who would you rather be today? And on every one of those early trips, it was Trump.

Every one.

Every one of those early trips, it was, people would ask us in this building, who do you think's going to win? And I'd always say, that's not my job. But if the election were today, Trump would win.

Yeah.

'We said that after every trip. And some people in the building didn't believe us. They just were like, What? That's impossible. January 6th, twice impeached, you know, criminal charges, fraud. Was like, you know, people vote their lives. My biggest takeaway from this election is that more politicians should shop for their groceries and more and more people in our business should go to the grocery store, go in-person.

It's a very good point. And I've heard a lot of people say, so it's just about money. But I think a lot of people don't have the luxury of thinking outside of just money. And so many Americans, you either get that or you don't.

Right. All things being equal. Yeah. Sure. People think about democracy.

Right. And it's not that it's not important.

Right. Of course it's important. But the most important thing is feeding your family and having a job. Democracy, Donald Trump's character, even abortion rights, moves down your list, when it's your way of life. It's your family morale. It's your pride. I mean, you know, Trump. Trump didn't say anything specific about bringing costs down. He just said he would. But he also said when he was president, they were lower. That happens to be true. Donald Trump tells a lot of lies. That's a fact. Donald Trump tells a lot of lies. It is not a lie for Donald Trump to say, when I was president, gas was cheaper, food was cheaper. Your rent was lower. You had more money in the bank. That's a fact. Another point is that Donald Trump is the luckiest politician in my lifetime. He inherited a gangbusters economy from Barack Obama, and he's about to inherit the strongest economy in the world from the guy he calls sleepy Joe Biden. Because, you know, the Fed just cut interest rates again. That's going to help Donald Trump. Our economy has potholes and dents in it. Without a doubt. But look around the world. The American economy is stronger by far than any of the other Western industrialized nations.

John, straight from our first trip, even we heard voters say, I don't like his personality, but I'm okay with him because of all the other things. And that was something we kept hearing over and over again. But what was interesting was when it got to the Hispanic community and to Black voters. And how do you square that with with how that vote came out for him?

'People were voting their pocketbooks. It has nothing to do with the color of their skin. His inroads were among working class people. He grew among his traditional white working class base that he had in 2016 and expanded in 2020. A lot of people thought you can't expand that anymore. Well, he did look at the map in predominantly white, rural and small town America. Donald Trump got more. Higher percentages. And whether you're white or Black or Latino, if you make 50, 60, $70,000 a year and you have a family, things are tough. Things have been tough. Again, you came out of Covid and then you got hit with a two by four cost of living increases. And so you want something different. Donald Trump to them is something they can block out that part of him they think they can, they've just dealt with chaos and they've dealt with stress and strain. And so now they get the Trump version of that? Okay. What's more important? Punishing Donald Trump for something that happened a few years ago. Or taking a chance that the economy is going to get better again. And I get to go back to pre-COVID America, where I was doing better than than I am now. It's a pretty basic proposition.

John, what has this project and these voters and interviewing them taught you?

Most of all to listen? 24, seven, 30, 65 even in the odd numbered years. Don't just do this at election cycles. I think that we had a very early sense of what was going on in the country. The people are way out ahead of this town. The people are way out ahead of the politicians. And so keep in touch with them. Understand when their lives are getting better, getting worse, or, you know, kind of the same. I always say that we're in the curiosity business, and to get paid to learn is a gift. It was such a gift, breathtaking gift to do it this way, to see the country, to see its struggles. To meet these remarkable people who some of whom are profoundly struggling and have have giant questions, crossroads questions about the future of the country and the future of their community and the future of their family. At this point in my career, I want to listen to people. I want to listen to voters. I wanted to experience it through them, not through sitting at a table in the back of a room trying to poke my head around the press riser to get a look at the candidate.

It gives a whole picture like, that's kind of how I felt. I covered three presidents and getting to do this, I felt like I actually saw. The impact of everything you just described. All of the policy, all of the talking, all of the rallies. How does it reach actual human beings?

There's nothing like being there and listening. I said this in one of the first episodes. You know, I think it was just to get me to shut up. But my mother told me at a very young age, you only learn when you're listening.

I'm sure she was, but that's also true.

No, she was trying to get me to shut up. But. But I took it. I took it to heart anyway.

We met 86 people with such different opinions about everything and such different lifestyles and backgrounds and you name it. But not one person is not a good person. I mean, I don't mean for that to sound like an unusual thing. My point by saying that, they were all such great humans and they all cared about America, and that was the bottom line. They, not one of them didn't care about America. And I wish that as a country we could take, that as a person, I will take that with us from this project.

This podcast version of All Over The Map is a CNN audio production. Our show producers are Grace Walker, Jesse Remedios and Allie Malloy. Our editor is Graelyn Brashear, and our senior producers are Dan Bloom and Haley Thomas. Dan Dzula is our technical director, and Steve Lickteig is executive producer of CNN Audio. Support from Nicky Robertson, Jacqueline Kalil, Alex Manassari, Robert Mathers, John Dianora, Leni Steinhardt, Jamus Andrest, Nicole Pesaru and Lisa Namarow. Special thanks to Wendy Brundage and Katie Hinman. I'm John King. Thanks for listening.