At 5:35 a.m. today, the Associated Press declared Donald Trump, who had passed the threshold of 270 electoral votes, the winner of this year’s presidential election.
“I feel robbed,” said freshman Oceanne Kavore. “I would have wished to have a female representative in the White House.” Additionally, Kavore said that she is unhappy with Trump’s victory because of his anti-abortion stance.
A student who did not want to be identified said that he is concerned about Trump’s immigration policy because he has family members who are immigrants. “Our grandparents on our mom’s side,” he said. “I’m worried about family division.”
Additionally, he said that he is concerned because of Trump’s actions during his previous term. “I did an assignment about his scandals, and I researched the hush money case,” he said. “If we’re looking at what happened last time he was president, I could see a lot of scandals.”
Junior Nia Worley said that she is concerned about higher tariffs, or taxes on foreign goods. Trump proposed a 20 percent universal tariff and a 60 percent tariff on items imported from China.
Worley said that she didn’t follow election coverage as the votes were counted. “I wasn’t looking at the results for how everything was going last night. I just kind of tuned it out and turned my phone off. I didn’t want to know until it was out,” she said.
A student who did not want to be identified said that she was happy with the election result. “One of the things that Donald Trump said he was going to do was reduce taxes over time. I think that’s really cool and it would help my family and I,” she said. Trump has proposed lower taxes on Social Security for seniors, overtime pay and tips.
Sophomore Gavin Marston said that he was unsurprised by the outcome. “Something like this was going to happen eventually. Over the past couple decades, the whole rise of the Christian right in the country has definitely gotten larger and larger. It definitely got pretty big with Reagan, so this was the natural conclusion,” Marston said.
He said that he disagrees with some of Trump’s stances. “Taxes will be lower, but I think a lot of his cultural policies, regardless of how you look at it, are not good,” he said.
Freshman Aamia Moore said that she was disappointed that Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t win electoral votes in any swing states — where political views are less polarized and where candidates compete fiercely. Trump has won five so far: Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Results in Nevada and Arizona are pending.
Sophomore Shyanne Denny also said that the results were unsurprising. “I wasn’t completely shocked when Trump won the election,” Denny said.
Freshman Madison Greene noted that Harris’s sex likely contributed to her defeat. “Some people were saying that they’re never going to let a woman be president, and I pretty much fully agree with that,” Greene said.
Another student who did not want to be identified said that she is worried about Trump’s victory. “As a biracial person and a person born female, it feels like all of his policies have the potential to hurt me,” she said.
The same student said that she is relieved because Trump will not be able to run for president again. However, she said, “His running mate could run, and other people with his beliefs, and that’s just kind of scary to grow up in.”
Junior Myles Hills carefully expressed his reaction. “We are — what’s an appropriate word? — we’re fudged,” he said.
Said Moore, “I’m not very hopeful for my future, for our future, in America.”
