Hillary Clinton Volunteer Lena Dunham 'Never Truly Believed' Donald Trump Would Win

— -- Lena Dunham worked for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign for about 18 months and, on Nov. 8, was ready to party with staffers and other supporters at Manhattan's Javits Convention Center.

In the weeks prior, she'd traveled to swing states, including North Carolina and Colorado, stumping for the Democratic candidate, and she felt good about Clinton's chances.

In a new essay published to her website Lenny Letter, the "Girls" creator also admitted that "as horrifying as I found Donald Trump's rhetoric, as hideous as I found his racism and xenophobia, as threatening to basic decency as I found his demagogue persona, I never truly believed he could win."

"At a certain point it became clear something had gone horribly wrong. Celebrants' faces turned. The modeling had been incorrect. Watching the numbers in Florida, I touched my face and realized I was crying," she recalled. "'Can we please go home?' I said to my boyfriend. I could tell he was having trouble breathing, and I could feel my chin breaking into hives. ... By the time we'd made it over the bridge, a friend called. 'It's over,' she said. 'I love you.' I was frozen."

Dunham, 30, wrote that as devastated as she and other Clinton supporters feel in the wake of Trump's victory, it's important to stay politically active. Explaining that "in this new reality, we have all been radicalized," she encouraged Democrats to "speak for the voiceless, the people who can't demand change for fear of very real and violent losses."

"So no, the work isn't done. It is only beginning. We will stun ourselves with what we are capable of. We will laugh with surprise like kids who finally threw a punch back at the schoolyard bully," she concluded. "We will watch our friends in awe as they step forward and demand more, as they recognize and wield their politicized identities. We will not be governed by fear. We will show our children a different way. We will go home like shooting stars."