By the early hours of Nov. 6, it was clear that former President Donald Trump would be returning to the White House as the 47th President of the United States, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris with a projected 312-226 electoral college win.
The results mirrored the final standings of the schoolwide mock election, where 50% of students supported Trump and 45% backed Harris. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the third-party candidate, received 5% of student votes.
For sophomore Abe Scarff, who said he voted for Trump in the mock election, the win was a “relief.”
“In 2016, the economy was significantly better,” Scarff said. “A lot of things were more affordable under his administration. He is not even in office yet, and China and Russia are ready to be friendly with the United States.”
Scarff said that he picked Trump because of Trump’s stance on illegal immigration and the border, adding that he thought many of the concerns voiced by Harris supporters lacked evidence.
“People like to argue that Trump will take abortion rights away, but Trump himself said he isn’t touching that,” Scarff said. “People also argue that Trump will take away the rights of LGBT individuals, but I have not seen a proper source to that argument yet.”
Freshman Jaxon Orloski said that he’s looking forward to Trump’s policies such as “limiting the immigration into the U.S., his tax cut plan, following through with his plan of Obamacare and over keeping America’s interests first.”
“I’m excited to have Trump back,” Orloski said. “Hopefully Trump will fix the economy back to what it was before Biden and help with the high inflation of these past years.”
Freshman Harris supporter Lyla Hahn said that her initial reaction to her candidate’s loss was worry.
“I don’t know where this [result] may lead us,” Hahn said. “My mother and I both cried together, scared of what might happen to our loved ones.”
Hahn said that she voted for Harris in the mock election and supported her candidacy because she believed Americans would “lose rights” and civil rights movements would be “set back,” citing The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which many major publications have linked to the Trump campaign.
“There are mentions of banning the mailing of abortion and birth control medication,” Hahn said. “This is going against the rights of women [to] being able to control their own body … [Trump] is also proposing banning gender-affirming surgeries … These surgeries being banned could cause [transgender suicide rates] to go higher.”
Hahn added that Trump is the most “destructive candidate” she has seen.
“Trump is practically restarting the process we had,” she said.
In a post-election survey of 210 students, 57.1% rated their reaction to the election as a one or 10 out of 10. Largely, Harris supporters reported their post-election feelings at one and Trump supporters at 10.
Additionally, there was a 32-point difference in voting preference by gender. Trump carried 63% of the male student vote compared to 31% of the female student vote, according to the survey.
“I would assume [this difference comes] from the fact political views are normally very different between males and females,” Scarff said. “Females are typically Democrat as males are typically Republican.”