Millions of Americans will take to the polls tomorrow to cast their ballots in a historic US presidential contest. As Vice President Kamala Harris faces off against former President Donald Trump in one of the most turbulent campaign cycles to date, Trinity students from the US have weighed up their options ahead of election day.
Trinity News spoke to several American students studying at Trinity about their hopes, fears and opinions coming into the last stretch of the race.
For these students voting from abroad, the process looks a little different than how it would be for the traditional voter.
“I’d say it’s not difficult, but it’s not as easy as walking in to fill out a ballot,” said Teagan Marty, Junior Sophister PPES student from Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Annika Ramani, president of the University Philosophical Society (the Phil) from Pennsylvania said “it does take a bit more resilience to be able to be able to vote when you’re an American student abroad”.
“The first time I could vote was for the midterms, and my ballot got lost in the mail, and so I didn’t end up voting”, Ramani said.
All students Trinity News spoke to said they had cast their ballot for Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. Law and political science student Molly Haslam quoted Oprah in explaining her preference for Harris: “Its common sense over nonsense”.
“Obviously no political candidate is perfect, but the Democratic Party is trying to help all American people, and you know, the wider scope of the world, rather than Trump, who’s just not doing that”, Haslam said.
Laura Brady, a recent Trinity engineering and management graduate, now pursuing a master’s at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana also shared her reasoning behind being “Kamala all the way”.
“I think she aligns with my views”, Brady said. “And also, I just don’t see how Trump is a viable candidate for president, like he lies, and he doesn’t even really keep track of his lies well enough to keep up with them himself.”
Other students expressed more reluctance in casting their ballot for the vice president.
“I think I really see how maybe while she doesn’t represent all my ideals, I think she’s definitely a much better candidate to kind of continue a lot of the work that’s been doing over the past four years,” said Matthew Terrell, a junior fresh student from Boston.
The idea that Harris was not reflective of all of their views was a common theme across the students interviewed. Several were quick to say that they disagreed with some of her policies, especially in relation to Gaza.
“I think, like everyone, that I disagree with her on a lot of things,” Ramani said, going on to voice her disappointment over Harris’ failure to deliver a ceasefire in Gaza. However Ramani went on to say that “We just can’t be single issue voters. In this election, there’s so much more at stake”.
Marty also accepted a certain distance between her own views and those of Harris: “While her policies are not all what I would choose, she understands that she needs to be moderate and she can’t be as liberal with things as I wish she would be”.
Junior Sophister History and Politics student CJ Gale acknowledged her difficulties regarding Harris’ stance on the situation in Gaza, referring to it as an issue “that has been kind of on the fence, that I often find myself debating with friends”.
“Kamala Harris is the only presidential candidate that has called for a ceasefire, which is obviously, you know, it’s the bare minimum, considering that the US is basically funding the entire genocide, but it is a step in the right direction in terms of other candidates.”
Despite reservations about Harris’ stance on Gaza, most students interviewed named abortion and women’s reproductive rights as the issue that mattered to them most in this election, something which they felt Harris would be better able to deliver on than Trump.
“Definitely abortion rights and reproductive care”, Gale said on the question of the most pressing issue in this election.
“That is definitely a big issue. Luckily I live in a state where abortion rights and reproductive healthcare haven’t been haven’t been taken away, but that’s obviously not the case for so many women.”
“It’s very easy for me to access this kind of healthcare, and it definitely should be for other people.”
All feared the prospects of a second Trump term in office, though for a number of different reasons. For Ramani and Marty, Trump’s supposed affiliation with “Project 2025” was a serious concern.
“Everybody’s talked about Project 2025, which Trump has denounced that he’s not a part of., Marty said, But a few people that are aligned to be in his cabinet or have worked with him are a part of that”.
Similarly, Ramani said that a Trump presidency would be “deeply concerning, to put it lightly”, and discussed how Trump’s presidency could have an impact on the judicial branch of government.
“My family is mixed race,” Ramani said, “so when the Supreme Court talks about overturning the [Loving v Virginia] case that allows for mixed race marriage, that is something that is very realistically going to happen. Same with [Obergefell v Hodges], which legalized same sex marriage.”
“Realistically, there is another Supreme Court Justice that will die in this next President’s tenure”, Ramani said.
“That’s something I had to think about when I voted”.
On who they expect to win, a majority of students were quietly hopeful of a Harris victory, with the exception of Marty, who feared a Trump win as likely.
“It’s just from my experience,” Marty said, “going home and visiting my rural area in a swing state, it doesn’t give me much hope.”
However, for the rest of the students, there was a sense of “quiet optimism” that Harris would be able to win the upcoming election.
“I think she has a really good chance,” Ramani said, “but I don’t want to jinx it”.
“I think it’s definitely important to note that while I would vote for the vice president and I’m supportive of her winning, her winning [would be just] the first step”, Terrell said.
“There’s pressure that has to be kind of put on – after that, you get stuff done for the next four years.”
