MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Throughout this hour, we've been hearing reflections on the recent election. Now we want to drill down into some specific voter groups. We've been visiting with people who visited with us throughout the course of the election. We wanted to hear what their thoughts are now.
Before Tuesday's election, there was a lot of talk about Latino voters potentially turning out in record numbers to support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The thinking was that Donald Trump's plans to build a wall on the Mexican border, to deport millions of Latino immigrants would energize Hispanic voters. But according to exit polls, that didn't happen. In fact, it seems that president-elect Donald Trump outperformed the previous nominee Mitt Romney when it comes to these voters.
One Latina voter, who's been backing Donald Trump all along, is Denise Galvez. She's co-founder of the group Latinas for Trump. We spoke with her earlier this year. She's with us once again. Welcome back. Congratulations.
DENISE GALVEZ: Thank you. This feels good.
MARTIN: Yeah, tell me what feels good. Like, what were your first thoughts when you found out that Donald Trump had won?
GALVEZ: I was literally in shock. I mean, we were waiting in, you know, a ballroom in Miami with a lot of the supporters and volunteers. And we actually got kicked out of the ballroom at 1:30 in the morning and then had to go to a local restaurant that we knew would be open so that we could at least all be together, you know, once the announcement was made. So when they said that, I mean, it was, of course, complete, you know, elation. But I was surprised. I couldn't believe it when I looked at the map (laughter).
MARTIN: Now, to be clear, in numbers, significantly more Latinos voted for Hillary Clinton than for Donald Trump.
GALVEZ: Of course.
MARTIN: Yeah. Has that been tough for you throughout the course of the year? Have you - has it been a hard sell for you?
GALVEZ: Of course. And we knew we weren't going to get a majority of Latinos to vote for him. We just needed some of them to come out and support in that, at least as many as supported, you know, Romney. And, you know, we ended up surpassing it by a little bit. And, you know, I think it really made a difference.
MARTIN: Now, do you see why some people legitimately feel threatened and demeaned by Donald Trump and his campaign? Are you hearing that yourself?
GALVEZ: Of course, of course. I mean, I have personal friends with their families completely split and wondering how they're going to get through Thanksgiving and, you know, reaching out to me, like, you know, crying and sad and, you know, with huge divides in their immediate family. And I understand that there's a huge misconception about him and all of that. I think that, you know, just as the media and the pollsters got their coverage and - you know, everything - they got it all wrong. And a lot of it has to do with them sensationalizing a lot of these things that, you know, were completely taken out of context.
MARTIN: So to people who say that they feel threatened by him and demeaned by him, what do you say?
GALVEZ: I say that they have been fed a load of bull and just like everything that was reported in the news that turned out to be untrue, they need to re-examine their thoughts of Donald Trump and look into his history and go ahead and talk to people who actually know him and, you know, can give you personal anecdotes of their, you know, personal relations. There's tons of it all over the internet. I mean, you know, go beyond those 30-second soundbites that, you know, that MSNBC repeated over and over again.
MARTIN: And on a personal level, do you feel like - you were saying that it's been kind of tough, you know, that you know for a fact that there are a lot of families that are really split behind this. What do you think will make it better?
GALVEZ: Time. I think that number one, him delivering on his promises and actually improving the economy and, you know, for things to start happening, you know, that are positive changes. Once that starts happening, I think people will definitely change their opinion of him. But I think that that'll only happen with time. Obviously, he's still the president-elect. So come January, you know, in the first hundred days like they talk about so much, if he starts to, number one, eliminate and repeal all those executive orders that Obama put in place, I think that, you know, people will start seeing that he is a man of action. You know, I think people question whether he's just all talk. I don't.
MARTIN: That was Denise Galvez, co-founder of Latinas for Trump, and we reached her in Miami. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.