By: Amanda Nagy
The 2024 Presidential Election has become one of the most influential political events of the twenty-first century. For quite some time, politics has been a divisive topic, however, this division has increased with the most recent election season. Generation Z in particular has been incredibly active, discussing politics on social media and sharing their opinions on all sides of the issues. The recent presidential election was a popular topic amongst McPherson College students, so I decided to survey my peers through social media to discover the expectations they had about the election, and how they feel now that it is over.
Before election day came around, I put out a link to a survey on my Instagram story. Out of the students who responded, 80% thought that Donald Trump was going to win. Of that same 80%, less than half of the respondents had actually watched the presidential debates. And, only 40% of the respondents said that they planned to vote in the upcoming election.
I also asked the survey participants why they believed either Trump or Harris would win, and for the most part, there consensus across all of the responses. Ashlee Williams, a 19-year-old student at McPherson College said, “When I think of the election, I assume Trump has the majority because, locally, that’s all I really am hearing.” An anonymous respondent confirmed Williams’ assumption, stating that they thought Trump would win because people wouldn’t want to vote for a female.
The day after the election results were finalized, I created a second survey where I asked people how they were feeling post-election. 56.3% of my responses were surprised by the outcome of the election, and 87.5% of those respondents voted on election day. This number of voters was promising, however, when I asked if they felt as if their vote mattered, 85.7% said they did not think they made a difference in the outcome.
I also wanted to learn how people were feeling about the outcome of the election, and over half of my responses explained that they are now feeling some form of fear. For example, Mackenzie Clarke, an old friend of mine from Dallas, said, “Many of my fellow students at my school were celebrating while I was contemplating whether or not it was safe for me to continue to have my pride pins on my backpack, and I began applying to grad schools out of the US.”
Another response from Alexis, a 21-year-old student in Austin said, “It felt like an attack on everything I am because everything Trump hates on is everything that describes me.” It appeared that a majority of my respondents felt that the outcome of the election made them unsafe due to their identity.
However, some students indicated that they were pleased with the election results. One of the anonymous replies stated, “I believe Trump is going to help America. I would like a woman president but I would like a woman that can actually think for herself and is serious and not completely empty.” This was the only response I received that was left anonymous in the second survey.
