Student groups react to election results | The Triangle
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Student groups react to election results

Nov. 15, 2024
Photo by Kasey Shamis | The Triangle

The decisive results of the 2024 presidential election on Nov. 5 culminated with President-elect Donald Trump winning 312 electoral college votes to 226 against Vice President Kamala Harris. On Drexel University’s campus, a flurry of reactions – dismay and approval – have taken the scene, leaving many students concerned about the future. Students shared their personal thoughts on the results and the issues they believe everyone should be concerned about going forward into the next four years.

At Drexel, many student organization groups have conflicting viewpoints on the election and resulting political policies. Although student organizations cannot promote partial voter education, each organization aims to provide an outlet for free and open discussion regarding different political views. Even so, student members of these organizations all had unique and diverse reactions when it came to election night.

Jason Check, senior finance student and president of Drexel University College Republicans, weighed in that the “[Drexel Republicans’] reaction was obviously very positive” and “a lot of good initial results came from election night.”

Contrastingly, Justin da Silva, treasurer of Drexel Democrats, expressed dismay: “[The election] did not turn out the way we had hoped, or expected, obviously. But, you know, that’s the way it turned out, so there was definitely a lot of disappointment, some frustration.” 

Yan Burets, vice president of the Drexel Socialists provided an outlook on the election that was distinct from American partisanship: “Neither party represents the working class. We are not surprised at all that the Democrats lost.”

 Burets attributed the Democratic loss to their own failures: “It wasn’t even that Trump became more popular than four years ago… Harris did not outperform Joe Biden in any of the counties across the entire country.” 

Mutual disdain for both Trump and Harris administrations only incurred a loss for the Harris-Walz campaign, according to Check: “There’s voters that are upset with Donald Trump, but they also figured out that they were not better off today than they were four years ago. So, they did not actually like the Biden-Harris policies of their administration. [These voters] decided to stay home and not to vote.” 

He cited more pressing issues such as the national debt, stating, “Donald Trump during his first administration did raise the national debt by a lot” but “[the Biden-Harris administration] raised the national debt more than the Trump administration.”

Burets, da Silva, and Check each shared their thoughts as to the problems and issues that mattered for university students and many voters across the country.

When asked what could have caused the DNC’s loss, Burets pointed out “their continuous support of the genocide [in Gaza].” 

Since December of 2023, the number of Americans who believe that Israel’s war against Gaza has gone too far has increased. Also, half of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independent voters believe that Israel has gone too far, with only 13 percent of Republicans believing such, according to the Pew Research Center. Not only is Israel’s war against Gaza a partisan issue in the United States, but many contest that Harris would have won the election if she had spoken out against Israel

Aside from specific issues, Burets noted that Democrats have provided “continuous promises that never get fulfilled.” 

According to Check, “For young Republicans, the first thing that comes to mind is the economy. Millions of Americans, right now, get their bills, their salaries, they say ‘My bills are adding up and my salary is not growing the same rate.’” 

He also added commentary regarding immigration, saying that an issue can be seen at Drexel where “If an international student comes here, they can only do two co-ops within the United States, and one that’s international. I think that’s broken… Talent should establish roots here.”

Burets asserted that Trump’s victory cannot entirely be attributed to the way that he communicates himself or his beliefs: “People who vote for Trump don’t necessarily hate women and hate minorities. It’s people who are workers that’s a majority of Trump’s basis of support.” 

He added that not everyone is keen on what exactly Trump is saying, stating that “What we see on TV is one thing, you know ‘Bidenomics, prices are rising!’ but then we go to the supermarket and see things are more expensive and are left with less and less money every single year to buy anything besides basic necessities.” 

According to Burets, wanting a change was enough for Trump voters to choose someone who is not currently in office.

In addition, da Silva described how “[people] go on Zillow, [people] look at housing and stuff [and ask] ‘How are we ever going to have a house? How are we ever going to afford all of these things?’” 

When speaking of the Democratic loss and the economy, da Silva added, “that’s something that the Democratic Party has mismanaged, definitely on a local level when you see how long it takes to get any kind of new housing approved, pretty much in any city.” 

Additionally, da Silva asserted Republicans’ “complete disinformation… the migrant panic, trans panic, all these things” and that “The Democrats just kind of never really fought against it. I think that’s what it was.”

All three student representatives shared their thoughts on what these election results mean for students and for the country.

Check pointed out, “In the state of Pennsylvania, we have a Democratic mayor, we have a Democratic House, so not many things are gonna change on the local Pennsylvania level, [but] I think we’re going to see a lot of trends. Hopefully better safety [and] more funding for police in areas like Philadelphia.”

On the other hand, da Silva mentioned Trump’s plans to abolish the Department of Education, saying that “we are not going to have the student loan forgiveness that we were having. Payment plans are going to change a lot. We could be looking at the end of the Pell Grant. It’ll probably get worse, especially if the big funding for the Department of Education isn’t there.” 

Concerns about free speech on college campuses were also expressed by da Silva: “Trump was running on expelling pro-Palestinians and students on visas.”

In contrast to all the growing concerns seen on campus regarding the aforementioned issues, Burets looked forward to the future and expressed hope that people are going to start seeing issues within our system: “A lot of people are radicalized and very open to our ideas. The main obstacle for them, really, is that they don’t know about us yet. We’ve seen an enormous growth in the recent period.”

Heading into 2025, Drexel Democrats, DUCR and Drexel Socialists are ready to implement their renewed visions in the wake of the 2024 Presidential election results.

Despite the enormous Republican victory in the election, Check cautioned that this is President-elect Trump’s second and last presidency and stated, “The club’s focus moving forward is how do we increase enthusiasm and get people to understand the Republican party is the party of the people?”

Burets concluded the interview by saying, “We can build our party and become a beacon of revolutionary politics in this country. I’m sure by the next election, maybe even by 2026 elections, we will have a candidate running [where] the idea isn’t to win the party and manage the crisis of capitalism, but to have a person in this institution to have a giant microphone and speaker for everyone to hear about our politics.”

When speaking of the future of Drexel Democrats, da Silva said that they will be “reaching out to people who look like me, you know, young men…Trying to figure out how we can better communicate to them, especially on campus. I feel that people on our side of the aisle don’t really have an effective counter to folks like Joe Rogan, or those kinds of people. We’re trying to figure out better ways to communicate what’s at stake to people our age, men like me.”