Democrat Terry Zee Lee watched as Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton to become America's 45th president.
"I fear for our country," said the 68-year-old Lee, who earlier Tuesday had no doubt in her mind that Hillary Clinton would be elected president. "I cannot imagine that as well as our country is doing right now, with all the improvements and all the gains we've had for equal opportunity and social justice — it just makes me sick to my stomach that my fellow Americans have that much hate and misogyny."
From Pennsylvania to California, Oregon and Washington hundreds of people hit the streets to voice their opposition to Trump's victory.
Police said at least 500 people swarmed on streets in and around UCLA, some shouting anti-Trump expletives and others chanting "Not my president!"
There were no immediate arrests.
Smaller demonstrators were held at University of California campuses and neighborhoods in Berkeley, Irvine and Davis and at San Jose State.
Many also took to Twitter to express their shock, grief and fear.
#NotMyPresident and #ImStillWithHer hashtags were trending on Twitter Wednesday morning.
Hundreds of activists are planning to gather in Chicago Wednesday evening to “stand in serious disapproval to a Trump Presidency.” More than 1600 said they plan to attend the event in front of the Trump International Hotel & Tower, located at 401 N. Wabash Ave. in Chicago.
“We must resist this outcome,” organizers wrote in a Facebook page for the protest. “In fact, we cannot be idle. We must get into the streets immediately. We must unite and stand with immigrants, Muslims, women, LGBTQ people, poor and working people and Black Lives Matter. Only the people can defeat racism, bigotry and hate."
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
At least two protests were also planned in New York City. Facebook events for demonstrations in Union Square and Columbus Circle were created on Wednesday morning, with more than 2,500 Facebook users responding that they would attend the protests.
Election night turned into a nail-biter for millions of Americans as the nation waited for the final tally of votes from a small number of states, mostly in the upper Midwest. But Trump victories in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, along with traditional Republican strongholds, gave the real estate mogul the path he needed to win.
The final determination of who would become the nation's 45th president extended an already long, acrimonious race.
In Hagerstown, Maryland, Sebiina Odin, an African-American who supported Clinton, wondered about the prospects of the nation coming back together after such a rancorous campaign. She joked that her son asked her, "'You want to go to Canada for four years?'"
But Odin said that on Wednesday, "I'm going to get up and go to work. And I'm just going to be like, he's in the White House. And hopefully, four years from now, we'll win it back. "