One group of six women, black and white, were chatting excitedly about the results.

“She is presidential and she will be the president,” declared Allison Fenderson.

“He has no respect for women,” added Stephanie Watson.

“He constantly feels the need to tell us how smart he is. Hillary didn’t need to tell us. She demonstrated that,” said Ella Frantz.

Emily McNair said Trump’s answers had been incoherent. “I turned to my friend and said, what did he say?” But she added, “I’m still scared to death.”

Jonathan Carnes, an attorney in Raleigh, was nervous, though he said he was skeptical of polls, which he thought were oversampling older and more conservative voters. As to the debate, “There was a lot of juxtaposition between the candidates. She emanated calmness.”

Carnes thought that would play well with undecided voters—including some of his colleagues, with whom he sometimes debates. A Boston transplant, he said he was used to arguing politics more stridently with friends than was customary in the south.

Further back in the line were Jane Ann Hughes, Fran Venezia, and Freda Cole, a trio of retired principals from Wake County. Of Trump’s performance in the debate, Venezia said, “We recognize juvenile behavior when we see it. He was like the students outside our offices.”

I asked whether they felt more confident then they had 24 hours earlier. “I hope America feels more confident than yesterday,” Cole said.

“It just concerns me that so many people think he would make a good president. He’s dangerous. He scares me,” Hughes said.

Joe Haigler, also of Wake County, said he thought Clinton’s performance would connect well with middle-class and younger voters. My colleague Ron Brownstein wrote recently that weakness among Millennial voters could cost Clinton the election. I went off in search of a few.

Carlos Franco and Kayla Williams must have been the only folks at the rally who hadn’t watched the debate, they sheepishly admitted. Franco was working. Williams was getting a new phone.

“I don’t like Hillary, but I don’t want Trump,” Williams said, echoing a common theme among Millennial voters. But she was planning to get out. “He’s never voted,” she said, pointing at Franco. “Get on him. You’re gonna vote this year. If you don’t vote, you have no right to talk about anything.”

“I don’t have a right to talk about anything?” Franco asked, protesting that he was only 19 and wasn’t legally allowed to vote in the last election. (A wispy mustache confirmed his defense.) He thought he’d probably vote this time around. “I was with Bernie. He was my man,” he said. “Then he endorsed Hillary and I said I got to go with her. If Bernie says you’re cool, you’re cool.”

Several Duke students, eager Hillary backers, had cut class to come to the rally. They said they were “terrified” before the debate, but were feeling at least a little better now. But the apathy was real.