I woke up Nov. 6 to a very foggy morning. The sun came up, and it eventually burned off the fog.

Many mornings after an election, especially a presidential election, leave a lot of people wandering around in a fog. There are winners and those who didn’t win (I prefer not to call them losers — at least not in a public forum such as this).

Once the presidential race was called in favor of Donald J. Trump, the people who would rather have seen someone else win started saying how horrible the next four years are going to be. I know we already had four years of a Trump administration, but as I write this, we are closing the election week, so let’s at least let the dust settle before we start moving to Canada.

This time around, Trump will have a Republican Senate, and races in the U.S. House are still being figured out. Time will tell just how effective or damaging, depending on your leaning, the second Trump presidency will be.

In the meantime, I am going to offer some observations about this past election cycle and campaign season. Here at The Farmer, we try not to get too political. Nay, some of you will say, since we posted two separate articles on the vice presidential candidates for the two major parties.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was tagged as Kamala Harris’ running mate, and the Farm Progress policy writer penned an article about what Walz brought to the ticket. We ran the article online and in our September magazine. As soon as that magazine hit readers’ mailboxes, my phone started vibrating and the email inbox started filling.

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I was called a lot of nasty things, and you would have thought that we published a piece supporting a mass murderer. I was able to lower the blood pressure of the callers and emailers by saying that we ran the article merely because it was news, and not an endorsement. When the home team’s governor is named a vice president candidate, it’s news regardless of your feelings about a candidate.

Let’s just say that from the smattering of feedback I received, there are a lot of Minnesota farmers who are not fans of Walz.

Fast forward to when Trump named JD Vance his running mate, and our same Farm Progress policy writer wrote an article about what Vance brings to the ticket. That article ran in the October issue of The Farmer. After the reaction to the Walz article, I was bracing myself for a repeat of fan mail.

I received a single response to the Vance article. In my less-than-scientific observation, I believe that is why you saw the majority of Minnesota with the scarlet hue.

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What’s ahead?

Too many people were uncomfortable with the direction they feel the country is heading and felt change was needed. Will that change prove to be a good move? Time will tell.

Speaking with farmers, there is apprehension about what another Trump administration will mean to trade and tariffs. Again, it remains to be seen just how impactful that will be for agriculture and the economy in general.

The first order of business for Congress should be to get a farm bill finalized — probably not in the lame-duck session, but soon after inauguration day.

Once the fog clears, it will be interesting to see how bright the sun shines.