Ximena Solorzano, Contributing Photographer
A month ago, the News conducted a survey asking students to share their voting issues in the upcoming U.S. election, receiving 957 responses from students eligible to vote. With around a week until Election Day, Yale students continue to voice a wide range of concerns and predictions surrounding the election.
The News interviewed 33 students about their reaction to the News’ data, their top issues in the election and their prediction of who will win. In interviews with the News, students expressed concerns about a variety of topics this election, including abortion, climate change, LGBTQ+ rights and economic policy.
For many undergraduates, the 2024 election is their first chance to vote for president, though many expressed fatigue and cynicism toward politics and expect the election to be close on Nov. 5.
“For a lot of people their entire political consciousness has been in the Trump era,” Elijah Hurewitz-Ravitch ’28 said. “We’ve grown up and come into political consciousness in this era of just craziness, so there’s a lot of desensitization to [politics].”
Students discuss their top issues this election
Multiple students cited abortion access and access to contraceptives as a top issue for them in the upcoming election.
Nimisha Srikanth SPH ’25 is a reproductive rights activist who shared that many of her peers have expressed worries over the state of women’s healthcare under Trump’s presidency.
“My peers and I are concerned about reproductive health and abortion, and that influences a lot of our voting decisions,” she said.
Moore echoed Srikanth’s concerns.
She said that Trump’s policies surrounding abortion access to her “feel like something out of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.’”
“I was reading something that said Trump supports and stated explicitly that women should be punished for having abortions. It’s a really big issue for me; my number one issue,” she said. “I almost get emotional thinking about it.”
According to Eugene Covington Jr. ’28, the individual’s autonomy over their own body should never be placed in the hands of the federal government.
“The majority of my family are women, and I believe that there needs to be a separation between the federal government and your doctor’s office. No one should tell you what to do with your body,” Covington said.
Clarissa Tan ’26 added that students at Yale have the privilege of access to contraceptives or to be able to get an abortion; however, these rights vary from state to state, and students should consider this factor while voting even if it doesn’t directly affect them.
Other students addressed gender-affirming care and, more broadly, the safety of LGBTQ+ individuals under Trump.
“Even if I don’t necessarily agree with the things that the candidate in particular is saying, I’ve taken into consideration how safe I would be to disagree with them under their administration,” Jesus Rojas Hernandez ’28 said.
Another policy that students have spoken passionately about regarding public safety is the rapidly changing climate.
Giuseppe DiMassa ’28 said he has already experienced the dangerous effects of climate change first-hand, which is a leading reason why he voted against Trump.
“Los Angeles experienced its hottest summer ever. There was a single week where temperatures were over 110. This has never happened before. Homeless people were overheating. I was getting texts every day from my family saying, ‘This is not normal.’ I do not want a president who calls climate change a hoax,” he said.
Ankush Bansal SPH ’26 aligned with previous statements regarding the importance of women’s health care and climate policy as foremost voting factors.
He added that economic policy played a large role in his vote.
“Is this country going to have a robust economy?” he said regarding what questions he considered when deciding his vote. “How are we going to deal with jobs? Are we going to deal with changing technology and the changing job market?”
Similar to Bansal, Toby Neal ’27 affirmed the importance of the candidates’ economic policy to his voting decision.
Harris, Neal said, has policies that he feels are more likely to directly benefit the working class.
“The policies that Harris is putting forward are more in line with the working and middle class, in contrast with Donald Trump, who cares only about billionaires and wealthy corporations,” he said. “It’s nice to see a candidate who comes from the middle class and is eager to input policies that are going to affect people like myself.”
On the other hand, Manu Anpalagan ’26, who is president of the Yale College Republicans, noted that the economy is also a top issue among his conservative peers.
Anpalagan, who supports Trump, said that he feels prioritizing the American worker should be at the forefront of the candidate’s platform.
“My top priority in this election is focusing on American workers that have been neglected for decades by politicians who have served corporate globalist interests. And the top issues that capture that are trade and fiscal policy,” he explained.
Other students mentioned maintaining a peaceful transition of power as a top concern.
DiMassa explained that Trump’s reaction to the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol is “absolutely disqualifying” of Trump as a presidential candidate.
“Trump incited a mob that attempted to overthrow democracy, and even as it came close to harming elected officials, including his own vice president, he stood there and watched. It is not the character or policy that any American should expect from an elected official. It is absolutely disqualifying,” he said.
Four other students interviewed by News expressed fears that a Trump presidency could jeopardize the future of American democracy.
Some students interviewed by the News were particularly focused on the candidates’ approach to foreign policy.
“The most important issue for me is an effective foreign policy. I feel like we need a president who is not going to be pushed around,” said Rohil Mohan ’28. “I would like to see a president who’s willing to engage with our allies first and foremost, not isolate the United States.”
Students speak on coming of age during Trump, Biden presidencies
Jack Dozier ’27, a student from Charlottesville, Virginia, said he first became politically active in 2017 when, at 11 years old, he watched the Unite the Right rally march through his hometown.
“I could see this divisiveness in my hometown, minutes away from where my mom worked, in a park that I grew up going to,” Dozier said. “That’s what pushed me to become politically active.”
Dozier noted that many of his peers are also aware and concerned about political divisiveness and extremism and that it influences how fellow members of Generation Z think about politics.
Disha Shidham ’26, who is an Eli Whitney student and graduated from high school in 2015, said that growing up in the Obama-era of politics, which she characterized as “calm” and almost “non-interesting,” has made her “long for” a return to political stability.
“I am grateful that I was able to grow up during the Obama era of politics when we didn’t have to have politics be at the forefront of my mind, as it has been recently,” she said. “The Biden years have felt much more, at least early on, felt much more like the Obama years. But obviously, with this election, it’s kind of back to the chaos and fear and anxiety that accompanied the Trump years.”
Hurewitz-Ravitch told the News that he feels that becoming politically active during the “craziness” of the Trump era has influenced how he and other members of Gen Z think about the upcoming election, making Gen Z desensitized to politics and generally more cynical about the upcoming election.
Hurewitz-Ravitch added that he has also felt a “very strong sense of cynicism” toward the upcoming election from his peers. Some of his classmates, he said, feel that it won’t make a difference whether Trump or Harris win.
“The biggest thing I’ve noticed in this whole race [among our generation], is a really strong animosity towards institutional power of any kind. I know people who are way to the left of me on a lot of things, and they’re just saying Kamala and Trump are equally bad, both corrupt,” he said. “There’s just this very strong sense of cynicism.”
Students found survey results to be accurate of their experiences
The News’ survey found that 82 percent of students intend to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, compared to only around 8 percent who back former President Donald Trump. It also found that Yale students overwhelmingly identify as liberal and are affiliated with the Democratic Party.
Anpalagan found the data in line with his perception of the political climate at Yale.
“The YDN survey appears to be a very accurate representation of where Yale students stand politically,” he said, expressing his view of the campus as “overwhelmingly liberal.”
“This is certainly what I have seen in my conversations and interactions with my peers,” he continued.
Many students shared Anpalagan’s perspective of the campus political climate. Three students interviewed by the News attributed the liberal lean of Yale’s study body to better educational resources on campus.
“Yale is a self-selecting place where we have extremely well-educated people and the moment that you read any of [Trump’s] policies, they just don’t make any sense,” said Anabel Moore ’25, who is a former WKND editor for the News. “College campuses are very left-leaning, generally speaking.”
Similarly, Johntrell Bowles SPH ’25 explained that as students are generally more “aware of a lot of the things that candidates are saying” and “able to do their own research,” they tend to skew liberal.
Anpalagan said that those in the political minority can feel ostracized in the dominantly liberal community.
“There is definitely self-censorship among conservative Yale students. A lot of my friends have cited possible discrimination in internship and job hiring as their largest concern when determining how open they want to be with their involvement in Yale College Republicans,” he explained.
Of the students who put their contact information in the News’ survey, only one student identifying as conservative agreed to comment for the article.
Anpalagan cited retaliation from authority figures as possibly behind the conservative students’ reservations to publicly discuss their beliefs.
“Whereas in the past it was largely a fear of social ostracization and judgment by peers, nowadays it is moreso a fear of retaliation by those who hold authority and power over students’ futures,” he said.
Students believe election will be “extremely close”
According to the News’ survey, almost half of Harris voters believe that she will win the election in November, while just over a third of Trump voters believe that the former president will.
“I would be remiss to suggest that either candidate is likely to win. I mean, if you forced me to choose, I’d say perhaps a slight edge to the Democratic ticket, just based on what we’re seeing on the ground and what we’re seeing in terms of polling numbers, metrics, fundamentals, etc.” said Michael Garman ’25. “But I don’t think we can stay with confidence that either ticket is likely to win.”
Brendan Kaminski ’28 said that he was “hopeful” that the Harris-Walz ticket “will emerge victorious” as the Democrats have “created a lot of momentum” for Harris following Biden’s withdrawal from the race.
Zach Pan ’27, who has been knocking on doors in Pennsylvania with the Yale College Democrats for the past few weekends, said that everything he’s seen has indicated a very close race.
“Everything I see on the ground suggests this is going to be very, very close,” he said. “And in terms of trusting the polls, the polls right now say the election is on a knife’s edge, so I completely agree with that. I very much hope Harris wins, but it’s a real toss up at the moment.”
Anpalagan said that he believes that Trump will win the election as Trump has outperformed polling averages in the past two previous elections.
“In 2016, Hillary Clinton had a 4-point lead in the polls but lost. In 2020, Joe Biden had an 8-point lead in the polls, and the race was extremely close,” Anpalagan wrote to the News. “Right now, both Harris and Trump are tied in the latest polls, strongly suggesting to me that Trump will prevail.”
Anpalagan added that he believes there will be a Republican majority in the Senate. But, he explained, the House will be very close, possibly “more competitive than the presidency.”
Bowles also said that he believes the House of Representatives and the Senate will have close races. He added that it’s especially important that people engage with the Senate and House of Representatives elections.
“It’s important that people vote, even if they’re not particularly favorable to the presidential candidates. Congress has a lot of power,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of comments about people not wanting to vote for the [presidential candidates], but we have 488 seats that are out for election in Congress, and their work really affects the on-the-ground issues that a lot of people encounter on a day to day basis.”
Voters in Connecticut can register on Election Day at designated locations.
This post was originally published on here
