There has been significant debate over the past few months over who would become the next leader of our country. Tension has continued to rise, as the country remembers 2020, the last time there was a transition of power. This editorial will focus on perceptions on our campus leading up to the 2024 Presidential Election, which, as of Nov. 6, has been conceded by Kamala Harris to Donald Trump.
Before the election took place, assistant professor of political science at William Jewell Dr. Abigail Vegter, discussed her thoughts with us in an interview conducted by the Hilltop Monitor on Oct. 28, 2024:
“This is the first presidential election we’ve had post-January 6, and I think that that’s an important consideration to the fact that we did not have a peaceful transition of power last time. There’s a lot at stake here and there’s a lot at stake in the response to this election. So not only the results, which are going to be, of course, impactful but how the results are handled and the responses to those results, I think, is going to be really important for how our democracy functions moving forward.”
The topic of democracy is a crucial element to the 2024 election. Students worry about the implications of this election for American democracy, and many have stated their worries about what the future holds. An anonymous student stated, “It makes me very nervous but it also gives me a lot of hope… finding out that Kamala Harris was going to be the democratic candidate instead of Joe Biden reignited my passion for politics.”
The 2024 presidential election was one of the closest in U.S. history and the result could have gone either way. Since Biden dropped out on July 21 2024, the vast majority of national polls have had margins so slim that they’ve all posted results within the margin of error. Indeed, one of the latest polls in the runup to the election, conducted by FiveThirtyEight and the Times, showed Harris leading by just one point. Nate Cohn, chief political editor at The New York Times, noted that polls have never been so close on election day. The same poll gave Trump a slight advantage in 5 of the 7 swing states. That said, national polls gave us a more or less accurate estimate and were not representative of all local trends.
The Hilltop Monitor sent out a survey targeting Jewell students exclusively, in order to gauge opinions on the candidates, as well as the importance of voting in general. The survey received 60 responses, which is a very respectable figure for a campus of around 1,000 students. The survey was conducted on Oct. 23 2024 and answers to all questions remain anonymous.
The first question asked participants who they planned to vote for in the 2024 election. The results gave a large advantage to Harris, who won more than half the vote with 53.3% against just 21.7% for Trump. Many national polls do not offer neutral/third choices, but in the case of The Hilltop Monitor poll other options provided included “not sure/undecided,” “not eligible to vote,” “choose not to vote” and “vote third party/other.” In this sense, this first graph shows an interesting trend with over 20% of Jewell students opting for one of these alternative options, a total that actually exceeds the total of recorded Trump voters.
The second question resonates with an important part of the presidential debate: is true democracy at risk? For several months, many political scientists, academics and journalists have been warning the public about the potential threats Trump would pose to democracy if elected. In Oct. 2024, Robert Paxton, professor emeritus at Columbia University and one of the leading experts on facism in American academia, warned the public about Trump’s fascist tendencies, confirming and accentuating the views of many Americans who are frightened by Trump’s lack of commitment to democratic principles. On the other hand, Trump and his campaign have also used some of these terms to describe Harris. Interestingly, over 70% of Jewell students think the outcome of the 2024 election will pose a threat to American democracy, regardless of which candidate is chosen. These figures are roughly similar to the results of an Economics Times national poll, which found that 76% of American voters believe that American democracy is under threat.
Some 21.7% of students rate Trump favorably and intend to vote for him. By contrast, 38% of students intend to vote for Harris and approve of her candidacy. Interestingly, Harris has lost around 10 points compared to the first question in this survey, meaning that fewer students view her favorably, although she is still preferred to Trump. This 10% gap might imply Kamala’s Harris lack of popularity among democrat leaning voters.
Nov. 6 marked a turning point for the United States and while Jewell students seemed to lean towards voting for Harris, the national results show a different trend. This historic election opens a new chapter in the history of this country, one that was not anticipated by Jewell’s students, who gave Harris the edge. On the other hand, many students also shared their concerns with Harris’ campaign: “I want to be able to buy a house or be able to afford gas,” an anonymous student said. “I do believe that Trump would create a better economy.”
With division invading the nation, citizens gathered around their televisions to watch the competition live on Nov. 5. As the results came in, many news outlets realized that they had predicted the outcome of the country wrong. At 5:35 a.m., Nov. 6. Trump had virtually won the majority of electoral college votes, and he will be the 47th president of the United States. Yet, many wonder what democracy will look like in a few months as the future of the nation is handed over to the first ever presidential candidate convicted of a felony. Will Donald Trump leave our country thriving or in shambles? Only time will tell.