Every election night you make a detailed plan – but often you tear it up

It is always wise to assume nothing, especially when dealing with Donald Trump

The word is flexibility. For any journalist covering an election, whether for a town council or the presidency of the United States, being able to respond quickly and thoughtfully as events play out in real time is essential.

That does not mean you do not have a plan. Ahead of the midterm elections, US-based staff of The Independent were busily planning and preparing. That has enabled us to produce lots of reportage and analysis that we think is important and relevant, but also allowed us to ditch certain plans, and pick up others, as election day approached and factors shifted.

Yesterday we identified what we thought were the most important and interesting races, and made an informed guess about the likely outcomes so we could assign reporters to focus on them.

Yet, it could have be the plan needed to be modified. Two years ago, none of us gathered in our New York headquarters truly believed Donald Trump would emerge a winner, though some of us thought it was at least possible. The political analysis site FiveThirtyEight had given the former Apprentice host just a 15 per cent chance. As the night went on, and more and more races went to Trump – Ohio, then Florida, then Pennsylvania – we had to act nimbly.

Articles we had expected to run about how Hillary Clinton had won the election instead became examinations of the errors she made that had proved fatal. A piece we had assumed would focus on Bernie Sanders’ words of congratulations to Clinton became a quick analysis on whether the outcome would have been different if the Vermont senator had been the Democrats’ candidate instead.

At 2.30am EST the news came that Trump had secured Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes, putting him over the required 270 threshold. Five minutes later, we were reporting that Clinton had called Trump to concede defeat and congratulate him.

Twenty minutes after that, we were watching Trump on stage with his family. More than one person commented that it seemed he himself could barely believe his victory. “Sorry to keep you waiting, complicated business,” he told his supporters.

It’s not often that we get to experience that level of drama. But, when it next happens, we’re ready.

Yours,

Andrew Buncombe

US editor