By Pete Mazzaccaro

It was a tough Wednesday morning for most voters in the 9^th ward, which includes all of Chestnut Hill and a western portion of Mt. Airy.

More than 88 percent of 9^th ward voters cast their presidential votes for Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton. Those 8,009 votes helped Clinton coast to a win of 82 percent of the Philadelphia vote, but not enough to claim a victory for her in Pennsylvania – a swing state that defied most polls by propelling Republican rival Donald Trump to the Presidency.

Turnout was slightly higher in the ward than it was in 2012, with 9,038 voters casting ballots for president, an increase of 177 voters over 2012’s 8,861 votes.

It was a close race in the state. With 99% of the votes counted, Trump had a 1.2-point lead over Clinton -- a gap of roughly 68,000 votes.

Trump, who collected 820 votes in the 9^th ward (9.02 percent) did not perform as well in the ward as Mitt Romney in 2012. Romney collected, 1,266 (14.29 percent) of the vote that year. Clinton out performed President Barack Obama, who received 7,511 votes (84.76 percent) in 2012.

In the ward, U.S. Senate candidate Katie McGinty shared a similar fate, earning overwhelming support (7,661 votes/84.67 percent), but failing to earn enough in Philadelphia and the suburbs to beat incumbent Pat Toomey, who retained his seat for a second term.

9^th ward winners who saw their wins extend to the rest of the state included Attorney General-Elect Josh Shapiro (7,839 votes/87.3 percent), incumbent Inspector General Eugene DePasquale (7,367 votes/ 83.7 percent) and Treasurer-Elect Joe Torsella (7,572 votes/ 85.24 percent).

The Local races for U.S. and State rep, the 2^nd and 200^th districts respectively, were landslide victories for congressman-elect Dwight Evans (7,631 votes / 86.12 percent) and State Rep-elect Chris Rabb (7,795 votes / 88.1 percent).