This story is syndicated from The Black and White, the newspaper of Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, MD.
As the final vote tallies came in from states this week, Republican nominee Donald Trump has increased his margin of victory in the presidential election, earning a stark 312 electoral votes and beating Democrat Kamala Harris. Harris received 226 electoral votes, falling well short of the 270 required to win.
According to the Associated Press, Trump has now won all of the swing states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona and Wisconsin. These battleground states continue to be the deciding electoral votes, and Trump led most of them by a large margin as well, despite several polls predicting it would be a toss-up. The Whitman community had mixed feelings about the results.
Senior Lakshmi Sundrum expressed her frustration about Trump’s win.
“I was pretty sad when I found out, and kind of shocked. I kind of knew deep down that he was going to win, but I was still pretty disappointed.”
Having followed the polls closely, some students were less surprised about the results, including Junior Hugh Gulub.
“Unlike a lot of people, I kind of expected this. Polls were a lot closer this time than in 2016 and 2020,” he explained. Golub also attributed Trump’s victory to people’s concerns over the economy and immigration.
“I think for me, the biggest issue this election was definitely the economy,” Golub said. “The Biden-Harris administration wasn’t as strong on those issues as the Trump administration was. I definitely think of myself as more of a fiscal conservative, so I favor lower taxes, and anything that gets the economy going.”
Some students aren’t convinced about people’s reasons for supporting him. Senior Claire Gerber feels that the only acceptable reason that people are able to say that they voted for Trump is because of the economy, so it’s taken a front seat.
“He’s such an awful person,” Gerber said. “I’d like to sit down with some of these ‘Trump supporters’ and have them give me three good reasons besides the economy. He promotes so many hateful policies and ideas, and it seems like they just try to ignore that.”
Trump’s previous scandals and remarks remain on the minds of several Whitman students.
“Trump stands for everything that is un-American and undemocratic,” sophomore Beza Poulter said. “It’s so disappointing that our country elected a convicted felon, racist, rapist and someone who caused an insurrection at the capital, over a woman who is more than qualified for the role.”
This year, state courts found Trump guilty of 30 of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a pay-off of porn star Stormy Daniels in an attempt to cover up a relationship Trump had with the actress. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 26. In 2023, state courts found Trump liable for the sexual assault and defamation of journalist E. Jean Carroll.
Poulter also pointed out Harris’ experiences in all three branches of government, compared to Trump having never been involved in politics before running in 2016.
“All he cares about is giving tax cuts to the top one percent — Harris’ policies would have benefited the lower and middle class much more.”
Senior Ava Soto is more optimistic about Trump’s presidency.
“I think him getting to serve four more years will be good for everyone, not only for people who agree, but for those who disagree as well so they can see how to work through it,” Soto said. “I think my biggest concern would be him speaking to the media, because he usually does such a good job, but sometimes people will pick at what he says. If he just doesn’t speak, and does more action, I think people will see that a little bit more.”
Reproductive rights were at the forefront of many voters’ minds as well. After the conservative-packed Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2021, questions of abortion legality moved back to the states. Since then, 21 states have imposed bans and restrictions on the procedure, resulting in several deaths from doctors’ inability to treat life-threatening events like ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages, and sparking outrage across the country.
Gerber explained how she feels lucky to live in a blue state with fewer abortion restrictions, but that not everyone has that privilege. “When we’re protesting and fighting, we have to act like we live in those areas too. We can’t just fight for ourselves, we have to fight for every woman out there who doesn’t have the right to choose.”
Gerber also noticed an uptick in hate speech following the election results being announced. “People are being encouraged by this election to be racist and homophobic. We literally just had an incident with students across the country receiving racist text messages.”
Only a day after the election, a series of texts were sent to Black Americans across at least 30 states, telling them they had been “selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation.” Students in historically black colleges were one of the major groups attacked. Since then, the FBI has gotten involved, and local officials have been warning people to report these messages to the police if they receive them.
Poulter also cited a right-wing, anti-choice message spreading on X and Tiktok telling women “your body, my choice.” Poulter recalled seeing several of the comments under many girls’ social media posts.
“Seeing those comments was absolutely horrifying.”
Despite this, Poulter is trying to keep a positive outlook on the years to come.
“Like Kamala Harris said in her speech, the stars can only shine brightly when it’s dark out. It’s gonna be a really dark time for America in the next four years, but that’s when the strongest people are brought to light,” Poulter said. “I think that a lot of amazing leaders will come out of this era, and that will probably be Trump’s best contribution to the country.”
