A range of emotions filled the MFS campus the morning following election day as students processed the results of the 2024 election. With several battleground states yet to be decided as of November 7, the 2024 presidential election was called in the early morning of Wednesday, November 6, confirming Donald J. Trump as the 47th President of the United States. What was predicted in the polls to be one of the tightest presidential races in history resulted in a swift GOP victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, ending the race even before key swing states like Arizona and Nevada were called.
All eyes were on seven battleground states on election night – Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan. An early Trump lead in North Carolina was an initial indication to viewers of his overall victory. After his win in North Carolina, Trump was confirmed as the winner of several other swing states, including Pennsylvania and Georgia. As the night went on, the surge of Harris’s victories predicted by reporters and polls never materialized, while Trump continued to gain ground across the nation.
Though Arizona and Nevada remain uncalled, Harris fell short of victory in all five confirmed battleground states, resulting in Trump’s victory. Trump was able to flip four of these swing states – Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia – all of which went blue during the Biden-Trump race in 2020. Trump’s battleground state sweep led him to a comfortable presidential win over Harris. He garnered 295 electoral votes, 69 more than Harris’s 226 (though the exact numbers are subject to change once the races in Arizona and Nevada are called).
Given the tight race predicted by the polls before election day, many members of the MFS community were predicting delayed results.
Student Zahra Mammadova ’28 expressed her surprise and shared, “I was expecting for it to take days but instead I woke up and saw the election results.” The magnitude of Trump’s victory allowed for an early election confirmation, as the results did not rely on ballots from Arizona and Nevada, whose votes were not counted as quickly as other states.
Senior Azaria Coleman-Stokes ’25 noted that she’s been thinking a lot about how “the morals of the [elected] candidate” will impact her life.
“Being a woman and being Black, I am personally affected by the controversial things President Trump has said or plans to do … [Trump’s election] left me scared for what the future of this country will look like,” said Coleman-Stokes.
Fellow senior Jude Sansevero shared Coleman-Stokes’s fear of what lies ahead.
“I was not in support of the person who won, and I’m a little worried about the future of our country and our economy,” said Sansevero.
Aiden Eickhoff ’27 commented that, unlike Coleman-Stokes and Sansevero, he was feeling “very excited” about the outcome. “I think the country is going to be better economically and in terms of the deportation process, I think it’ll be beneficial,” said Eickhoff.
Several other students in support of Trump either refused to give a comment with their name attached to it, or declined to give a comment entirely.
Olivia Arzu ’27 spoke on political tensions in the MFS community.
“I’ve personally noticed whenever having a conversation about the election with my friends, whether it’s campaign trails or different policies candidates plan on implementing, a lot of the people who were in the conversation start quieting themselves and being more of a spectator, which makes the discussion uncomfortable, and it’s hard to tell whether someone is in disagreement,” Arzu shared.
Eickhoff however, said he is comfortable sharing his support of President Trump and does not feel that the MFS community has pushed him to hide his opinion. Eickhoff mentioned that the first time he wore a Trump shirt to school, many of his peers told him that the community would ask him to take it off, or he would receive significant backlash.
Eickhoff noted, though, “They did not make me take it off. I think that shows that MFS is willing to let you show your point, and I think that they kind of encourage this.”
Inauguration Day is on January 20, 2025, when President Donald J. Trump will be officially sworn into office and begin his second and final term as President of the United States of America.
