The election has led to calls for the nation to come together, but many say that may not be easy after a bitter and often divisive campaign.
New Hampshire proved to be a battleground not only in the U.S. Senate race, but also in the presidential election.
A political signs were taken down in Nashua, Trump and Clinton supporters alike told necn Wednesday they were surprised with the results.
"Personally, I'm thrilled, sorry to say, I know a lot of people don't agree with that but I think we really needed change, big time change, and it's going hopefully in the right direction,” Maureen Arinello of Nashua said.
Political analyst Scott Spradling said even though pollsters pegged New Hampshire as a blue state, the voters didn't follow those predictions, instead splitting the state so evenly it wasn't decided more than 20 hours after the polls closed.
"What you did not see is that undercurrent of Trump supporters, the lunch pail, hardworking republicans who weren't answering polls, who weren't answering doors, who were planning to get out and vote but weren’t on the radar," Spradling said.
According to Spradling, Clinton did everything that helped Obama win the state in 2012, including a strong grassroots get out the vote effort, but it wasn’t enough.
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"What she was up against was something structural that was an anti-Hillary Clinton vote, which you can't change," said Spradling.
In Massachusetts, meanwhile, voters spent the day after looking for ways to recover. Results aside, both sides said the next step is healing.
Calls about how to cope were flooding the Boston University Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders. Psychologists say the key is finding the right way to cope.
"That may mean taking a break from the news and putting away Facebook," Dr. David Langer said. "For some people, it's seeking support and talking about it. For others, it may mean taking action and using this as a rallying cry."
Dr. Langer said the shock of the results and the fact that few predicted the outcome could make the results tougher to accept.
"People weren't really thinking about what reality would be if she didn't win," Dr. Langer said.
Parishioners and voters were beginning to accept the reality inside the doors of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Brookline, which opened early Wednesday morning knowing the community may need a place to heal.
"Right now it's how do we live in this moment and understand that we don't fully understand what just happened and we don't know what's going to happen, but we have to have hope," Rev. Jeff Mello said.
St. Paul's is one of several faith communities in Massachusetts hosting prayer services in wake of the election.
