“Absolutely terrifying.”
This is what Senior Allie Smith had to say as the election results rolled in Tuesday night. A transgender woman and music education major, Smith expressed worry at the potential enactment of right-wing anti-trans policies for educators, saying: “If Trump wins, it’s possible I won’t have a job.” She also expressed worries around her own access to Hormone Treatment Therapy (HRT), and increasing hostilities towards queer and transgender people in the United States, much of which she may face as a teacher.
Smith had accumulated with a small group of other students to publicly view the state of the presidential race in the EMU Student Union beside Common Grounds. Organized by EMU’s Black Student Alliance (BSA), beginning at 8 P.M., students were invited to aggregate and watch as NBC’s election coverage was projected onto the large display screen at the back of the room. This event created space for EMU community members to aggregate, talk, and listen as election coverage moved into the later hours of the night. Additionally, BSA had organized a series of voting car-pools to bring EMU community members to EMU’s polling locality.
Among these students were Seniors Nussa Garti and Meredith Lehman–both of whom have been politically active on campus, with Lehmen holding a leadership position in EMU’s Young Democrats club, and Garti being a key student organizer in last semester’s Pro-Palestinian protests and demonstrations. They each spoke to their respective experiences of the election, and how their time on campus had may have shifted their perspective on the eventual outcome: “We were both saying that we feel like maybe… being here has given us, like, not the most realistic view of America as a whole.” Said Lehmen, with Garti nodding affirmatively. She continues: “Because, like, I grew up in a really rural area, and I remember, like, the first time that Trump was a candidate in 2016. I have an uncle who lives in the city who said ‘Ah, that’ll never happen.’ and I was like, ‘no, he’s definitely getting voted in.’ because I was around that, like I had a better gauge of what a lot of America was thinking.”
“I feel maybe we weren’t as worried as we ought to have been.”
Written November 6, 2024:
As of November 6, 1:25 P.M. Donald Trump has successfully accrued 292 electoral votes, and will become the United State’s 47th president, becoming the second in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms. He is accompanied by his chosen vice president J.D. Vance.
Trump’s particular path to victory this November followed a similar pattern as the 2016 election, with large wins in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin all but guaranteeing a Republican electoral victory early in the night. However, unlike 2016, Trump successfully acquired Nevada–which Hillary Clinton held. As well as this, Trump also won the popular vote, a feat he did not accomplish in 2016. Currently, The Associated Press reports 71,875,427 votes for Trump, to Kamala Harris’s 67,008,012 votes. However, when compared to the 2020 election, Trump’s total popular votership has decreased, with a roughly 3-million-vote drop between then and now. This coincides with a more drastic drop differential for The Democrats, to the tune of nearly 14 million total votes lost between 2020 and 2024.
Throughout the day of November 6, EMU hosted break-out sessions for like minded students and faculty to discuss their emotions regarding the election. Republican-identified and Democrat-identified students were given separate spaces for these sessions.
Disclaimer: Will Blosser is a self-proclaimed leftist, who’s political views have been well-documented in the Weather Vane. This feature was written with the full, clear-minded intent of being unbiased, transparent, and truthful, and was checked for bias by multiple students with various perspectives on The Weather Vane staff. If you feel as though this piece misrepresents the events covered within, please contact us at: wvane@emu.edu
