On November 5th Donald Trump won the Presidential race with 312 electoral votes. He also won the popular vote by over 4 million votes, which hasn’t happened to a Republican candidate since former President George W. Bush. With the voting age being 18 and the majority of Mission High School students unable to vote, we wanted to hear about students’ reactions to the election.
Valeria Lopez, a 12th grader at Mission High School, has several worries about Donald Trump winning the presidential election.
“My mom was upset and me personally, I was upset because my rights could be gone. I’m worried about my own family and about my health care being taken away, LGBTQ+ rights will be taken away and so will abortion rights. I think the future of his presidency will be chaotic, meaning men will probably think they’re above everyone else. I believe a lot of women are gonna have protests about his victory.”
Valeria also thinks if Kamala Harris was president, a lot of the Trump supporters would vote against her ideas and a lot of women would feel more relaxed knowing they will retain their rights.
“In my opinion, I feel like she would have helped the middle class [with things] like rent control, and I feel like she would have established affordable housing,” said Valeria.
Diego Ramirez, a 12th grader, says he feels that when one shows support to the US, people always see it as something negative. Last week he waved an American flag because to him, the election was an exciting event. He feels like no matter who the president is, you should always support your country.
Diego believes he can’t speak too much on who would be a better candidate because “when it comes to politics, I’m not all that educated,” but he believes that Donald J. Trump is the best leader we have.
“I think if we were to go to war today, I would rather be led by Donald Trump than Kamala Harris,” said Diego.
Adrián Mejía, an 11th grader, thinks that for the immigrants, Donald Trump winning was “una patada al estómago” (a kick in the stomach) because many of them are scared of what could happen to them. He’s scared for his family members and friends that don’t have papers because of Trump’s plan to deport immigrants.
Adrián said: “Pero tengo primos y tíos en otros estados que si realmente ya van preocupados,” because of their concerns about deportation
Alani Krejci, a 12th grader, is glad about Donald Trump’s re-election. He is in support of the people that Trump has surrounded himself with. He likes Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and is in support of his plans to better the US’s health.
He believes that Donald Trump’s policies on deportation won’t affect those who came here legally.
Alani, like another student we asked, expressed feelings about worries of possible war breaking out if Kamala Harris had been elected President. He also feels that the Biden administration was at fault.
“I think there’s a little concern for war, I mean, I can’t guarantee that they would have led onto WW3,” said Alani.
Hugo Nie is a 12th grade student who immigrated from China. He believes something that will affect his family for sure is the “100% tax importation.”
“He’s racist and misogynist,” Hugo said. “I’m just sick and tired of all this chaos he has brought. I hope everyone can live in peace and love and in our next generation everyone can make good decisions and be better.”
He also shared concerns about the future, saying that “this election [wasn’t] just about Republicans and Democrats, it’s more about who gets to control human rights. I’m also scared of my parents being deported. I don’t support either Trump or Kamala. I think both of them have different points of views, Kamala is more for the middle class and Trump is more for the higher class.”
“I think the law of being 18 to vote makes me feel like my voice doesn’t matter and I also feel left out or left behind,” Hugo added. “I also think age is also an issue but if you can be mature enough to talk about politics then you should have the right to vote.”
Miguel Pimentel, 12th grader, is happy about Donald Trump being elected as the next president of the United States. He says that if he were to be 18 when the election was happening, he would have voted for Trump.
“I would have voted for Trump because my family would have benefited from his policies… like tax reduction on businesses.” While Miguel doesn’t agree with everything Donald Trump wants to make happen, he sides more with him rather than Kamala Harris because he was already a president.
He believes more people are comfortable with Trump because he’s ran this country before and he ran it really well. Because of Kamala’s link to Joe Biden he believes she doesn’t have a good representation, and that she wouldn’t have been set for the job.
Gabriella Rios and Irma Ocampo, 10th graders, think that Donald Trump winning the election was “very bad.” Gabriella says that he shouldn’t have been allowed to run for president with all the things he’s done, and that the way he talks about his daughter is disgusting.
“Even him saying that from a young age she was very beautiful and stuff like that… it’s off.”
(Donald Trump has said in multiple interviews that he believes his daughter to have the best body.)
Irma Ocampo is worried about Trump winning the presidency because of what she’s heard about Trump wanting to do with San Francisco, but is glad that we have a good governor that wants to protect California and “Trump-proof” it.
Apart from being worried about the presidency, Irma has strong beliefs that if Harris was to be in Trump’s situation, she wouldn’t have the same treatment as Trump.
“I just really think that if Kamala was in this situation and committed those felonies, she would be in jail right now.”
In conclusion, there were many diverse opinions about the results of the presidential election, but most of the Kamala supporters agreed on the same type of beliefs and fears. For example, fear of deportation, the loss of women’s rights such as abortion rights, and the fear that citizenship will be removed for those who have immigrant parents. For the Trump supporters, they agreed that with Trump as President, there probably isn’t going to be a war.
However, one thing that all students agreed on, no matter the candidate they preferred, is that this presidential election was a significant moment in the U.S. which will lead to pivotal changes to our history and future.
