Data from a Nordic poll of 850 students

With an electoral college breakdown of 312 to 226, Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump officially won the 2024 presidential election on Nov. 6, beating Democratic nominee and current Vice President Kamala Harris. 

On July 15, Trump was officially named the Republican nominee at the Republican National Convention. The initial Democratic nominee, incumbent President Joe Biden, formally dropped out of the race on July 21 after a CNN-televised debate against Trump. In a subsequent CNN poll, 67% of viewers thought Trump outperformed Biden. After dropping out, Biden endorsed Harris as the new Democratic nominee, and Harris was named the official Democratic choice just a few weeks later at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 5. 

“I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote on the social media platform X on July 21. This was surprising to some, including senior Matthew Epshtein (he/him).

“What stood out to me is that Biden dropped out. I didn’t think he would drop out; I thought that Biden would stick it until the end,” Epshtein said.

In addition to serving as 45th president of the United States, Trump, 78, is a businessman and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. After becoming president of his family’s real estate company in 1971, he renamed it the Trump Organization and developed into a conglomerate with interests across property management, construction and entertainment. Since leaving office in 2021, he has been found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Senior Julia Solorio* (she/her), who would have voted for Trump, said she doesn’t agree with much of what he says, but she still believes that he has stronger policies and more experience than Harris.

¨I feel like our economy was a lot better under his administration,” Solorio said. “And then the Biden-Harris administration — they didn’t really do a great job on our economy, and they keep saying that they will, and they have not.”

Harris served as the District Attorney of San Francisco for seven years, the attorney general of California for six years and a U.S. senator for four years. She is the first female vice president and the first vice president of color. With a campaign slogan of “We Are Not Going Back,” she and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz focused their campaign on maintaining a liberal-led administration while also changing certain policies, such as those regarding abortion rights, from the Biden administration.

Sophomore Kellen Trummer (he/him), who would have voted for Harris, said that he didn’t think she was the perfect candidate, but she was better than Trump overall.

 “I think her policies trying to fight climate change, fight for reproductive rights and just human rights in general — pretty liberal stuff — I feel like (it) should be a given at this point in our history, but obviously we still have some work to do,” Trummer said. “I think her economic policy is not the greatest, but better than Trump’s, and she’s just a better person.”

In Washington state, Harris won 58% of the popular vote for the state’s 12 electoral votes. Students’ reactions to Trump’s win ranged from surprise to excitement to despair.  

Trummer said that the media had been too optimistic about Harris’ chances of winning the electoral college, describing his first reaction to Trump’s win as disappointment.

“I thought we’d moved past the phase of a Trump America, and I was rather hopeful that Harris would win,” Trummer said.

 He described a Trump America as one in which politics are incredibly polarized and the national debt increases.

When Trump was elected, Solorio said she wasn’t necessarily excited, but she thought that Harris wasn’t ready to be president yet.

“I think Kamala just hasn’t shown a big role in leadership just yet,” Solorio said. “I think maybe in the next four she’ll have it, but right now I don’t know if people thought she was the right person yet.”

On the other hand, sophomore Cody Norton* (he/him) said he was pleasantly surprised by the election results. He said he liked Trump’s policies during his previous presidency.

“There’s some comments that he makes sometimes that upset people, but I just thought that his policies were better,” Norton said. “Kamala is vice president right now, and she hasn’t really been doing anything to bring down inflation and stuff like that.”

Sophomore Oliver Tseng (any pronouns), who considers themself a social Democrat, said that Harris’ loss was mainly due to her late entry into the race. They said they think Harris ran a very strong campaign but was limited to being a generic career politician, an individual whose primary occupation is the pursuit and maintenance of political office. 

“What I like to say is the American voters want change, but they don’t care if it’s good or bad,” Tseng said. “So swing voters, you have to appeal to them on a vision — you have to make them feel something. I think that policy-wise, policies are irrelevant in this case.”

Tseng had expected a narrow win for Harris, as she seemed to lead in the polls. They said their first reactions to the results were terror, confusion and disappointment. 

“We still live in Washington, but I don’t know how much they can enshrine a lot of rights to many things,” Tseng said. “And if things don’t change, I may leave when I turn 18. I don’t know if I’m going to stay in America.”

Trummer said he expects global relations to sour and economic growth to slump in the next four years if Trump’s proposed tariffs, like those on Chinese and Mexican imports, are implemented.

“The doomer perspective is that it’s over, it’s going to be dystopian, people are gonna get deported like crazy, our economy’s gonna crash,” Trummer said. “I think there’s a chance of that. I don’t think it’s going to happen because Trump does do a lot of talking — realistically, I don’t think he could get away with a lot of his policies.”

Sophomore Samuel Vuong (he/him), who favors Harris, said that he was shocked at Trump’s win but has since accepted it. 

“I am hopeful that things will work out,” Vuong said. “And hopefully America will go through these four years ending up as a more well-rounded, developed nation.”

The economy, foreign involvement and reproductive rights were top issues during the 2024 presidential election. Trump proposed several policies during his campaign speeches, including his “America First” foreign policy, a mass deportation plan and the delegation of decisions on reproductive rights to the states.  His proposed economic plan outlines targeted tax breaks (including the elimination of federal taxes on tips, Social Security benefits and overtime pay); across-the-board tariffs on imports; investments in the domestic market to lower prices of household goods; and a tariff of at least 60% on all Chinese imports. Students expressed both hope and concern for Trump’s economic plan. 

 “I think he knows more about the economy just because he has this business background, and he’s better with dealing with people because he also has been a salesman his whole life,” Solorio said.

On the other hand, senior Rayan Rizwan (he/him), who affiliates himself with the Democratic party, said he is concerned about Trump’s economic plans. Although his plans may have short-term benefits, Rizwan said, there may be hidden consequences that Americans aren’t prepared to handle.

“He has some economic plans that on paper, if you don’t look into them, all work. As in, he wants to lower taxes immensely and make up for them with tariffs, which would, in theory, put more money in the pockets of working-class Americans because they’re paying less taxes,” Rizwan said. “However, the real effect this has would be it would largely make other products imported from other countries — like computers or shoes or clothing, etc, cars — immensely more expensive, because tariffs are going to increase the prices of those products, making a lot of products and the cost of living higher for a lot of Americans.”

Students of both major political affiliations said Trump’s “outspoken” personality would be a major factor in international affairs. Introduced by President Woodrow Wilson, the “America First” policy prioritizies American interests. It typically involves disregarding international affairs and focusing on domestic policy. Vuong said that the “America First” policy plan may lead to U.S. withdrawal from international agreements like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Vuong also said that he thinks Trump’s policies may harm foreign relations and the American economy. 

In contrast, Solorio said that Trump’s strong personality will help him prioritize American objectives and deter other countries from taking advantage of the U.S. Although she said she had doubts about Trump’s behavior on the international stage, she said Harris did not demonstrate adequate leadership skills as vice president and thus would not have been able to be a strong representative of the U.S. 

“He’ll deal with those leaders better than Kamala would have done,” Solorio said. “He has a strong demeanor. He established like, ‘Yeah, you know, we’re the United States. We’re not gonna let anyone screw us over.’”

During his campaign, Trump intentionally distanced himself from Project 2025 — a document written by the Heritage Foundation outlining the goals of a conservative administration in the U.S. — and its rigid stance on abortion and reproductive rights. The 900-page document outlines proposals that would contribute to radically conservative legislation. Although Trump said that he would veto any national abortion ban, students remain concerned for the future. Junior Tammi Graham* (she/her), who identifies as a Democrat, said that her identity as a woman of color has shaped her political views. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Graham said she’s been worried about changes to abortion exceptions of rape and incest.

“I remember when Roe v. Wade was first overturned. My household is mainly women; I have me and my sister and my mom, and we all kind of sat in a circle, and the group’s depression made an imprint on me,” Graham said. “It just doesn’t make sense to me that other women can go vote for that.” 

Conversely, sophomore Conor Sullivan (he/him), who described himself as Republican, said his Christian status influences his belief that abortion is equivalent to killing humans. At the same time, he said that delegating decisions around reproductive rights to the states would allow each state to decide what is best for the population. 

“The states are gonna do what the majority of the people want to,” Sullivan said.

Over a turbulent presidential race that included two assassination attempts on Trump, political violence has become more common. Over 210 cases of political violence have occurred since Jan. 6, 2021, according to Reuters, which deemed it the largest increase in political violence since the 1970s. 

“I’m concerned there’s gonna be a lot more violence, because people have very strong opinions,” Solorio said. “I hope nothing happens, and I think everyone will be okay. It’s just four years, and then we get another four years to see who will be in office next.” 

The anonymous interviewees expressed concerns about conflict among peers due to contrasting political opinions. Many said that they hope students can acknowledge political debate without allowing it to interfere with their education and daily lives.

*Names changed for anonymity using a random name generator