The 2024 Presidential Election was clearly controversial between many New Yorkers, but the question is how was it received by BSGE students?
Donald J. Trump won the Presidential Election of 2024, the 60th presidential election held on Tuesday, November 4th. The two main candidates were Kamala Harris, with Tim Walz as her Vice President, and Donald J. Trump with JD Vance as his Vice President.
Donald J. Trump is a former president, who served as the 45th president from 2016-2020. He is a prominent figure in the Republican party and is known for his business, media personality and his Conglomerate company, the Trump Organization. Despite his previous presidency, many people, especially young people, are uninformed about his plans and policies when elected.
His most prominent policies regard immigration, abortion and tariffs, “On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders.” His policy about immigration was clear during his 2016 campaign, where he stated “Build the wall!” as his way to prevent immigrants with a criminal record from entering the country. For his 2024 campaign, he proposed ending birthright citizenship and limiting migrants into the country, which he calls, “Remain in Mexico.” His abortion policy is pro-life, not restricting abortions for women. He has publicly shared he has no intention to sign a federal abortion ban, however he is giving abortion laws to the states, allowing each state to decide if abortions are legal or not, severely restricting women’s choices regarding their bodies. Donald Trump plans to institute tariffs on foreign goods. He believes that the tariffs would allow the U.S achieve key economic and social goals.
Kamala Harris’s proposed policies are taxes for middle and working class families, tackling the climate crisis and helping the growth of small businesses. To support middle class families, the Harris-Waltz administration proposed to give more than 100 million middle and working class families a tax cut. Throughout Kamala Harris’s career, she has always advocated for climate change, proposing a 10 trillion plan to carbon-neutral economy in 2019.
The majority of students interviewed were discontent with the outcome of the 2024 election, only one interviewee looked forward to Donald Trump’s upcoming term. An 8th grader stated that she wanted him to win because, “He will close the border and finally lower prices of things.” When asked why she disliked Kamala Harris, she explained, “I don’t like her because she repeats herself too much.” However, she did admit to being uneducated in terms of her knowledge about the candidates.
Most of the students that were interviewed, stated that they wished Kamala Harris won because they disliked Trump’s policies. An 8th grader was against Trump’s policies “because he just wants to increase power in the presidential branch.” However, another interviewee, a 10th grader, believed that Trump shouldn’t have won because he held a criminal record and “because Trump wants to take away women’s rights and he’s a horrible person and also a criminal.”
In BSGE, students overwhelmingly, but not entirely, preferred Kamala Harris over Donald J. Trump as the 2024 presidential candidate.
