At the close of an ugly contest, a stark reality of low expectations awaits the next president

RALEIGH, N.C. – Jennifer Petticolas arrived early at the Hillary Clinton rally here, and there was no doubt that the Democratic nominee would get her vote.

But the retired educator said the biggest draw for her on a sunny, fall day was Mothers of the Movement – women appearing on the program with Clinton who have lost children to gun violence or in the custody of law enforcement.

As the African-American grandmother of a 3-year-old, Petticolas said she prays for the day that her grandson will be able to walk down the street and not be viewed suspiciously by police because of his skin color.

Asked what she thinks the Democratic nominee can do to help with that, Petticolas sighed – and then confessed that her expectations aren't terribly high for a candidate she considers only "the better of the two."

"This is the worst election I've ever seen," Petticolas said, "and I'm 68 years old."

With the end of an ugly contest between Clinton and Republican Donald Trump drawing near, such frustrations underscore a stark reality confronting Clinton if she reaches the White House: Much of the country will have very low expectations for what she might accomplish.

The race has tightened in recent days in the wake of news about renewed FBI scrutiny of Clinton's use of private email server as secretary of state. But even with a volatile electoral map, Clinton retains more paths to the presidency than Trump.

It's not that Clinton has been stingy in offering policy proposals. Over the course of her candidacy, she has put forward a slew of plans, many of them incremental, to expand health-care access, make child-care more affordable, raise the minimum wage and invest in the country's infrastructure, among many other things. But in a campaign dominated by both candidates' efforts to tear down the other, not much of that seems to have broken through.

In campaign stops across Florida earlier this week, Clinton said she wants to give people something to vote for, not just against. But what made headlines were her blistering critiques of Trump, whom she accused of avoiding taxes and "degrading, insulting and assaulting" women for decades.

Some voters simply don't trust Clinton. But interviews with dozens of voters in battleground states – including many who attended her rallies – unearthed a far broader skepticism about her ability to work with a divided Congress and change the poisonous atmosphere in Washington.

Just 35 percent of registered voters said Clinton would make a good or great president in a survey published last week by the Pew Research Center. Another 20 percent predicted she would be average, while 45 percent said she would be poor or terrible.

For Trump, the numbers are even worse: Fully 56 percent said he would be poor or terrible.

"It's not about having high expectations," said Claudia McConnehead, as she sat in the bleachers waiting for the start of a Clinton rally in Daytona Beach, Fla. "We'd backslide under Trump. I can't imagine there's anything he'd do for me. It would be worse. It would be about hate."

McConnehead, who has retired from a job at Florida's Department of Elder Affairs, said among the issues she'd like the next president to press are improving the Affordable Care Act and expanding Social Security benefits. But she doesn't have high hopes for cooperation between Clinton and a Congress that has thwarted President Obama far too often.

McConnehead, who said she's in her 60s, said she hopes Clinton has learned the lessons of her email scandal but has grown weary of the issue.

"At this point in the game, I'm really not paying attention to these email aggravations," she said. "I'm focused on getting this election over with."

Sitting a few sections away, Kandi Simons, 58, who lives in nearby Ormond Beach, also drew heavily on her feelings about Trump to explain why she had cast an early ballot for Clinton.

"I feel like she's going to stand up for me more than a billionaire with no experience," Simons said, adding that she considers Trump a sexual predator.

Simons, a former social studies teacher who now owns a gym, said she understands the good that government can do, citing how she, as a cancer survivor, has benefited from the Affordable Care Act.

But Simons argued one the biggest reasons to support Clinton was to prevent bad things that could accompany a Trump administration, such as new restrictions on abortion.

Saher Ismail, who lives in Suffolk County, Va., was a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries but has now started volunteering for Clinton's campaign. Ismail, an Indian-American Muslim, said she was prompted to do so by a haunting question her preteen daughter asked her: "Can Mr. Trump put us in camps?"

Ismail said her daughter has had nightmares because of the election rhetoric she's heard, including Trump's proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from coming into the United States.

Ismail, 47, said she has no real enthusiasm for Clinton's candidacy or much hope she'll be able accomplish much in Washington.

"She's going to have a really, really hard time," said the stay-at-home mother of one. "She needs to work on her image, have better answers about the emails and the Clinton Foundation. She has a lot of issues she needs to work out even within the party."

Many Trump supporters talk about what a Clinton presidency would bring in apocalyptic terms.

"Oh my god, it would be even worse than Obama, and Obama was really bad," said Gail Gorham, 77, a Republican who lives in Derry, N.H. "We would go down. I think we're going to have to hit bottom to get back up again."

Other voters say they've grown so disenchanted with Washington that they're not sure Clinton will have any significant impact.

"I can't image that anything will be any different than it has been the past 20 years," said Chris Tape, 49, a high school science teacher in Cincinnati. "I can't imagine anybody who has spent so much time there, how they would have any idea how I spend my day and how what they do impacts me."

Tape said "curiosity" prompted him to attend a Clinton rally in his city this week with his wife. He attended a recent Trump rally when he came to town and remains undecided about how he'll vote.

Tape, an unaffiliated voter, would like to see the next president reduce the role of money in politics – something Clinton has pledged to do – but he said he is skeptical that she'll follow through.

Voters offered no shortage of issues they would like to see Clinton address if she makes it to the White House.

"We have plenty of problems in this country, with the economy the way it is, and corporations trying to run the economy," said Tom Bazar, 43, a Norfolk resident. "Minimum wages should be at a level where people can afford to live off it. Health benefits should be expected [with a job] . . . and there should be a continued push for what Obama was trying to provide with his insurance program."

Bazar, a disabled veteran, who spent more than 17 years in the Navy, said he sees a lot of positive qualities in Clinton, whom he said "has been through trials and tribulations" and learned from her mistakes. But he said he expects continued gridlock in Washington next year, no matter who wins the presidency.

Autumn Jackson, 19, a sophomore at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., is somewhat more optimistic. Her leading issue is college affordability.

"Honestly, college should be free," said Jackson, who came to see Clinton during a joint appearance with first lady Michelle Obama. "Okay, I think that it shouldn't be free, but it shouldn't be so costly. There's still people paying for college in their 50s. Why is that realistic?"

Following the primaries, Clinton worked with Sanders to craft a joint plan that would make public colleges and universities tuition-free for families making less than $125,000 a year. How soon and how vigorously she pushes it would be among the early signals of how ambitious she plans to be.

Hank Starks, 66, who attended a Clinton rally in Tampa, said he is holding out hope that she will be able to work with Republicans.

"Other people were able to get it done," the semiretired Floridian said, pointing to a former House speaker and former president as examples. "Tip O'Neill was able to get it done with a Republican president. Bill Clinton was able to get it done with a Republican Congress."

As for Hillary Clinton, Starks said: "I hope she'll be able to twist some arms and get people thinking about the country instead of themselves."

Many voters say they're excited about the prospect of the county having its first female president. But some wonder whether sexism in Washington could hamper Clinton's ability to get things done.

Casandra Greenlee Lane, a Winston-Salem resident who came to a Clinton rally in her city, said she knows what it's like to be a woman in the workplace and worries about Clinton's chances of gets things done.

"I think they're going to give her an even harder time because she is a female," Greenlee Lane said. "Typically men don't like to take directives from women so I think she'll have an even harder struggle."

That concern is shared by Petticolas, a Lynchburg, Va., resident who attended the recent Raleigh rally while visiting relatives there. She'd like to see a new president push gun-control measures through Congress.

"President Obama was fighting hard to make change," Petticolas said. "But you had a black man who was fighting to make change, and that made it harder. On the one hand, Clinton is a woman, but she has a white face."

Billy Nolas and Julie Naylor, a pair of public defenders who attended a Trump rally in Tallahassee, both said they think Clinton will face enormous resistance in Washington if she is elected. But they cited reasons Clinton, a former senator from New York, could succeed in at least pushing incremental change.

"She's been more of an insider than Barack Obama was when he was elected," said Nolas, a registered Democrat.

Naylor, also a Democrat, said that incremental legislative movement should not be scoffed at.

"Little things, a lot of little things need to get done," said Naylor. "Little things matter, whether it's a little thing to help the environment, or to hurt the environment, little things to help underserved people, or to hurt underserved people."

This story was reported by Jose A. DelReal, Anne Gearan, Abby Phillip, Patricia Sullivan, Sean Sullivan, John Wagner and David Weigel and written by Wagner.