By Jeanine Kim ’20
On Nov 8, election night in the United States, the nation became both united and divided within the course of 12 hours. After months of campaigning on both sides, the presidential election finally came to an end on Tuesday as Hillary Clinton faced off against Donald Trump. At the end of the night, although he lost the popular vote, Trump won the election with 278 electoral votes to Clinton’s 232.
Because the 2016 election was very divisive, campus reactions to the results were wide-ranging. In a mock election conducted by the history department, Clinton garnered 73.9 percent of the student body’s vote while 14.1 percent supported Trump. The other 12 percent voted for third party candidates such as Gary Johnson and Jill Stein.
Trump supporters think that his outsider status, along with some other factors make him ideal for the presidency.
“I feel that his personality is key to both maintaining and creating good relationships with other countries such as Russia. Russia is currently on bad terms with the United States, and they like Trump. If Russia is on our side, then we would be able to control the world and help other nations,” Ben Sophy-Voss ’20 said.
Clinton supporters said that the result has left them in fear and suspense.
“Because he has no experience, it’s like having a loose cannon in the White House, which is dangerous and scary,” Walker McGinley ’22 said.
Even the neutrals had a lot to say about the results.
“At the beginning, I wasn’t for either candidate, but when it came down to it, I would have rather had Clinton in office than Trump. When the results came out, I was both shocked and scared,” Michael Conner Corley Jr. ’20 said.
