College midterms are rough, but midterm elections are worse. We NHIOP Ambassadors found ourselves doing very different things during this election season.

Ashley Motta, a sophomore politics major, spent most of her time working with Shaheen and the NH “Ready for Hillary” campaign. “Turnout was really important for this race, especially for Democrats,” she said.

On the other side, sophomore politics major Joseph Alexander readied the campus for Scott Brown’s victory. “We are going to win this race, and it’s going to begin with the youth vote here at Saint Anselm College,” explained Motta. Countless hours were spent making phone calls, knocking doors, sign waving; it was all a part of the greater effort to push each candidate forward.

Preparations were made, lines were drawn, and on Election Day, all that was left was to sit back, keep refreshing politico, and anxiously await the results.

7:00 PM: Polls close in most of New Hampshire and other key races around the country. Jeanne Shaheen starts with an early lead. Could New Hampshire’s results be an indicator of how the rest of the night would go?

8:00 PM: Shaheen widens her lead, Carol Shea Porter and Maggie Hassan are all leading; doesn’t look good for Republicans. Alexander: “My palms started to sweat, my hands were shaking, I wasn’t about to go down after all this hard work.”

9:00PM: Race was called for Hassan and Shaheen. Motta: “Looks like those long hours of phone calls and doors paid off for Democrats.”

10:00PM: Republican Congressional Challenger Frank Guinta took an unexpected lead that ended with his eventual victory at midnight. Alexander: “I was so sick of losing; losing in 2012 and again in 2014 was almost too much, until they called the race for Guinta.”

11:00PM: Race was called for Shaheen, but Scott Brown took an unexpected lead and with 75% of precincts reporting, Brown had 50.2% of the vote. CNN reconsidered its prediction, Brown was doing well late in the game; Shaheen’s supporters were stunned into silence.

Alexander: “Brown supporters were chanting ‘Go Scott Go’, there was no attempt to contain the excitement.” Motta: “I started to get nervous but I was still optimistic, there were a lot of Democrat strongholds not counted yet.”

After a few long hours of the lead going back and forth, one of the most anticipated Senate races in the country was decided and 15,000 votes separated the winning incumbent from her challenger. Motta: “If anything was clear, it was that every vote counts and the small margin between these candidates proved it.” There was a realization that in fact every phone call, every door knocked, every hour spent volunteering pays off in the end whether a candidate wins or loses.

Campaigns are a chance to lay it all on the line and fight for something important. Our ambassadors have learned that regardless of party, we will all come together in the end because we as Americans will put country over pride or defeat. The voters choose, and we must learn to accept the outcome.

In every race there is a winner and a loser, but because we are NHIOP ambassadors we’ve learned to put parties aside and find shared experiences and values in the lifestyle we have chosen.