While the 2024 presidential election winner has not been officially named, and votes are still being counted, Donald Trump is projected to be the 47th president of the United States.
Electoral college electors will meet on Dec. 17 to cast their vote. According to the New York Times, it is currently projected that Trump will receive 295 votes with Republican leads in Arizona and Nevada and Kamala Harris will receive 226 votes.
In Congress, Republicans have already won the Senate, with the House of Representatives not yet called. Congress is the legislative branch, which is one of the three branches of government in the U.S..
“I think people tend to overestimate the role of the president,” said government and economics teacher Rollie Woodward. “So they put a lot of importance on the person in office. But, I think a lot of the decisions that get made happen at the congressional level.”
The policies that this year’s election focused on included healthcare, immigration, abortion, and the economy — specifically, the different economic plans proposed by both candidates. Additional policies that the election focused on were education, climate and energy, social security, LGBTQ+ rights and gender affirming care, and more.
For first time voter Nate Van De Veire (12), healthcare is one of the policies that he cares about. He thinks that the election will impact how healthcare funding is spent.
“I know on the California ballot, there were several measures regarding how we were going to be moving towards spending healthcare funding,” Van De Veire said. “There was a healthcare insurance tax that was being voted on, so where the money is spent and what money is spent.”
Aaron Xie (11) said he considers the economy and the different policies that each candidate proposes to be one of the main issues that he cares about.
“[My dad] shows me a lot of videos on the pros and cons of Kamala’s [economic policies], kind of through the grocery tax policy,” Xie said. “The margins on grocery stores are already so low, and it’s gonna hurt a lot of businesses, and then there’s also [Trump’s] tariff tax, which is interesting at best, in my opinion.”
In terms of receiving accurate information, History teacher Ali Bogatz shared the importance of looking at different sources as well as going directly to a candidate’s campaign platform when researching the election.
“It takes a lot of work, taking the time to look at different sources, taking the time to look at print media versus broadcast media, and making an effort to find out who is making content,” Bogatz said. “I think really the biggest thing that helps to be an informed citizen is going to a candidate’s actual platform.”
Bogatz also stressed the importance of voting and its role in a democracy.
“Democracy was an experiment that is still sustained, and if we are not continually active in that experiment, then it isn’t going to work,” Bogatz said. “We have lower rates of participation compared to other nations, and the power in the numbers of youth voting can totally change the trends.”
Elections take place every year in local and state governments, and the next midterm election is in 2026.
“The number one thing is voting locally, and you maybe don’t feel like you’re going to see a big change, but the impact in your community, in your day-to-day life, is really something that is viable to change,” Bogatz said.
Edited Nov. 8, 2024, for word choice and grammar.
