Protests, on-site campaigning, twitter disputes, and class debates increased as the approval ratings of Trump and Clinton decreased. Young people were far more involved this presidential election than any other presidential election in the past with around 24 million 18-34 year olds voting.
As a political science major, I was curious to see how my fellow peers felt before and after the election process. I asked them a series of three questions and the results are shown below:
1) Who did you vote for in the 2016 presidential election?
2) Who did you project the win? Why?
3) How do you feel about the outcome?
Student # 1- A freshman english major who identifies as Republican (female).
1) Donald Trump
2) Hillary Clinton because everyone that I had talk to, including myself, was a little afraid of someone so rash like Trump to be president and Clinton had experience in a political office so it seemed logical that she would be elected.
3) I am generally happy with the outcome of the election, but I am concerned with the state of the country afterward.
Student # 2- A freshman math/finance major who identifies as Independent (male).
1) Hillary Clinton
2) I thought Hillary would win if she won Ohio and I thought she was more qualified. The media portrayed her as the only reasonable candidate.
3) I feel like people have reacted very wrong and are not channeling their disapproval properly. Personally, I'm amazed and disheartened but needless to say optimistic.
Student # 3- A junior political science major who identifies as Republican (female).
1) Evan McMullin
2) I thought Hillary would win because Trump is too controversial and all the polls predicted her to win at 85%-15%.
3) I'm pretty undecided about how I feel about Trump. I dislike both Clinton and Trump because I think they both are too extreme in the values of their party. The lack of moderation in both candidates turned me off. I voted for McMullin as a protest to the system because I disliked both major party candidates, so my reaction to Trump winning is a morbid curiosity to learn what crazy thing he does next.
Student # 4- A senior dietetics major who identifies as a Republican (female).
1) Donald Trump
2) Trump because I think that he had a greater amount of supporters in this election which allowed him to get ahead.
3) I feel good about the outcome. I believe that Trump has good overall goals for our country and will hopefully succeed in these plans to rebuild our economy and our country.
Student # 5- A freshman music major who identifies as a Republican (male).
1) Donald Trump
2) I had absolutely no idea who was going to win because almost every media source projected Hillary to win from what I could see but Trump also received much more support than I originally expected.
3) Satisfied
Student # 6- A freshman english major who identifies as a Democrat.
1) Hillary Clinton
2) Hillary Clinton. I had seen all the debates and polls. They seemed to predict her as the winner of the election. Also, in the weeks leading up the the election, there were lots of negative news stories about Trump. He lost the support of many Republicans. At this point, I thought, if your own party members do not support you, who will?
3) I was shocked that Trump won. I didn't think that there was any way he could get elected. It doesn't feel right to have someone without any political experience in office. I'm anxious to see what he will do with his position.
All in all, most of my peers found that Donald Trump winning the election was a big shock to them. Media portrayal and polls definitely disillusioned thousands of voters. The role of polls in elections will change for the many presidential elections to come.
