By Jennifer Ward, Arlenis Marmolejos and Natalie Tulloch
Kamala Harris (left) and Donald Trump (right). (Photo Via Telegraph)
With election day approaching, students share their thoughts on candidates and their political concerns. The presidential election is on Nov. 5, and students are discussing the importance of voting.
“Vote like lives depend on it, as lives do depend on it,” said Martin Stearns, a senior psychology major.
The Phoenix conducted a poll for eligible student voters to share their political views, with over 100 students on campus participating.
Current Vice President Kamala Harris is the candidate for the Democratic party, former President Donald Trump is the candidate for the Republican party, and Jill Stein is one of the candidates for the Green party.
Results of a poll conducted by The Purchase Phoenix.
In The Phoenix presidential election poll, 85.1% of respondents voted for Harris, 5.3% for Trump, 1.8% for Stein, and 7.9% were either undecided or not planning to vote.
“Fuck the two-party system,” Kirin Lawrence, a sophomore film major, said. “It’s either the racist rapist felon imperialist or the imperialist who makes it easier to ignore that we are all slaves of the military-industrial complex because she's not actively seeking to take away every minority’s rights... just some of them.”
With the majority vote in the Phoenix poll, most students on campus are voting for Harris, as Purchase is a primarily liberal college.
Although few students are casting their vote for Trump, many are still critical of voting for Harris.
“I believe if we hold Harris accountable when voted in we can bring the future we all want and need to see,” said Vanessa Chamorro, a senior political science major.
“Things have the potential to get so much worse under Trump this go round now that he's fired all the staff who held him accountable,” said Bobby Royston, a junior film major.
Results of a poll conducted by The Purchase Phoenix.
In The Phoenix’s political issues poll, 36% of respondents prioritized reproductive rights, 18.4% focused on the cost of living, 11.4% on the conflict in Gaza, 7% on immigration, 4.4% on inflation and the remaining votes were divided among other issues, including gun policy, climate change and crime.
Holding the top percentage in The Phoenix poll, many students on campus’s top political issue is reproductive rights. Trump called for restrictions on women’s healthcare and abortion, while Harris vowed to restore reproductive rights and fund organizations such as Planned Parenthood.
“As a woman, I am genuinely worried for not only my future and the future for my rights, but future generations, and especially for the future of people of color,” said Alyssa Ohlenschlager, a senior psychology major.
She continued, “It's absolutely heartbreaking that someone as bigoted and hateful as Trump—including the people that follow him—can have a platform and the ability to run this country. It is more like ruining this country, and running it to the ground.”
“While there’s a lot of things I don’t agree with like the stance on an abortion, I definitely stand with [Trump’s] stance on being very adamant about freedom of speech,” an unnamed junior arts management major said. “I don’t want to live in a censored society.”
Based on The Phoenix poll, 18.4% of students are concerned with the current cost of living. Harris has proposed economic policies to support the middle class, and Trump has proposed tax cuts for the top 5%.
“I think the biggest thing is what [Trump] proposed with the tariffs,” the unnamed student said. “From what I've heard other economists say…that could actually be good for us.”
Some students have raised concerns about her approach to the conflict in Gaza. Harris is part of Current President Joe Biden’s cabinet, which has funded Israel’s military aid, and Trump expressed his support for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach.
“I absolutely hate to vote for Kamala Harris because she is a genocidal war criminal,” said Noel Fletcher, a sophomore studio production major. “But I have to vote against Trump. The Democratic party is successfully holding me hostage.”
“Two candidates that support a genocidal regime that has done its very best to completely wipe out the innocent population of an entire country,” said Shiloh Blue, a fifth-year theater and performance major. “One party with obvious bad-faith policies, the other with the insidious presentation of a ‘lesser evil’ and a guilt-based turnout strategy.”
Many student concerns about Trump stem from his alleged affiliation with Project 2025, a nearly 900-page conservative presidential transition project.
Students are concerned about Trump’s reaction to a potential loss, in consideration of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“Needless to say, it’s concerning to see how Trump and his lackeys are going to respond if they lose,” said Dylan Taplin, a political science major.
“Do we really need the war criminal-in-chief to look and act like a comic book villain to realize they only work for Billionaires and corporations? Wake up people please,” said Lawrence.
In The Phoenix poll, 7.9% of students remain unsure or are not voting in the election, due to disagreement on the candidate’s political stances.
“I am choosing to exercise my right as an American citizen to deny my vote,” said Blue. “I will not continually and blindly give support to a candidate that promises to uphold a status quo when that status quo is a literal genocide.”
“I think we need to dissolve the two-party system and fucking introduce Congress with the Green party and the yellow party and the orange party. We bring more parties, maybe that’ll help,” said the unnamed student.
“While I haven’t casted a vote or come to a complete decision on my choice I do intend to vote,” said Joshua Anderson, a senior journalism major. “I want to see what happens as things grow intense on the ballots.”
Voting for the election will be held in the Red Room of the Student Services building from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
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