Students Share Their Reactions to Election Results

Mustang Staff

The results flooding in on Nov. 9 were indisputable. The 45th President of the United States would be Republican businessman Donald Trump. With nearly a complete split of the nation in the popular vote, a great divide was created between supporters of Democrat Hillary Clinton and supporters of Trump. Even the smallest groups of people felt the aftershocks of the election results, including MHS students. Some randomly selected students shared their reactions to the election results with The Mustang staff.

 

Guadalupe Cervantes, junior:

Q: Who do you think these results will most positively and most negatively affect?

A: I think positively, anyone who voted for him. Anyone who thinks he’s a good candidate or anyone who agrees with his way. People who are negatively impacted are people who he called out during his speeches, like women, immigrants, and people from the LGBT community.

Q: What do you think was the biggest deciding factor in this year’s election?

A: From what I saw in the news, people are saying that older people voting were a big factor.

Q: Where were you when you found out who won the election?

A: I was watching with my parents on a Spanish network.

Q: When do you think America was great?

A: I don’t know — I don’t think it ever was really great.

Q: Why do you think Trump’s victory was such a surprise?

A: I feel like he doesn’t have anything to do with politics; he’s an entrepreneur. It’s so weird that someone like him would ever be president. He has no background in that area.

Q: How does this election outcome make you feel?
A: It negatively impacted me because, obviously, I’m Hispanic. I was shocked.


 

David West, senior:

Q: Who do you think these results will most positively and most negatively affect?
A: I think these results will most positively affect rich Caucasian males, and I think it will negatively impact people of minority groups and who aren’t straight.

Q: What do you think was the biggest deciding factor in this year’s election?
A: I’m not really sure because there were so many factors in this election that made it interesting. There were a lot of people who are pro-life who didn’t vote at all.

Q: Where were you when you found out who won the election?
A: I woke up [that] morning, and I went into my kitchen, and my dad said, “Guess who won the election?”, and I said, “Are you kidding me?”

Q: When do you think America was great?
A: “It’s never been great; we literally kicked out the native people and oppressed the native people to start this nation.

Q: Why do you think Trump’s victory was such a surprise?
A: There’s been a lot of negative press about Trump, and because of his views, I thought that people would not vote for him.

Q: How does the election outcome make you feel?
A: A little sad; I know there’s going to be a lot of gridlock in the next four years, and this is depressing because our country will make little to no progress.


 

Carmen Gutierrez, senior:

Q: Who do you think these results will most positively and most negatively affect?      

A: I think they’ll most negatively affect minorities, people of color and women.

Q: What do you think was the biggest deciding factor in this year’s election?

A: White women had much more voter turnout than minority women.

Q: Where were you when you found out who won the election?

A: I didn’t find out until the next morning, but I was at Mariano’s [working] when I knew that he would win.

Q: When do you think America was great?

A: I feel like we’ve never been in ‘great’—period–in American history. There’s always been something holding us back from accepting every type of person.

Q: Why do you think Trump’s victory was such a surprise?

A: Mostly because I’ve been hearing from a bunch of polls that Hillary would win but also because Trump is so inexperienced.

Q: How does the election outcome make you feel?

A: Horrible, I’ve never been more disappointed in America.


 

Ella Brandt, freshman:

Q: Who do you think these results will most positively and most negatively affect?

A: Positively, more upper class people. Negatively, I think women since he has a history of degrading women and more experience with upper-class people.

Q: What do you think was the biggest deciding factor in this year’s election?

A: Media was a huge part of it because both candidates were very active on media.

Q: Where were you when you found out who won the election?

A: In the morning, in bed, went to google and found out that Trump won.

Q:  When do you think America was great?

A: A few years ago when everything was good. Nothing was crazy.

Q: Why do you think Trump’s victory was such a surprise?

A: From all the things he had said, I didn’t think people would take him that seriously.

Q: How does the election outcome make you feel?

A: Not very happy because I am not a fan of Trump.


 

Anuj Pawar, junior:

Q: Who do you think these results will most positively and most negatively affect?

A: Positively affects white people, but negatively affects minorities.

Q: Who do you think was the biggest deciding factor in this year’s election?

A: The biggest deciding factor was uneducated voters– people with no college degree.

Q: Where were you when you found out who won the election?

A: I was in bed; it was early in the morning.

Q: When do you think America was great?

A: I think America was great in the 1920s, or really the early 1900s as a whole because of all the technology advancements.

Q: Why do you think Trump’s victory was such a surprise?

A: People thought he had no chance because of what he said [during the campaign].

Q: How does the election outcome make you feel?

A: Nervous, definitely nervous.


 

Lizeth Mora, junior:

Q: Who do you think these results will most positively and most negatively affect?

A: This will impact everyone’s lives in your family and with your friends, but it will most likely more negatively impact people of color and women.

Q: What do you think was the biggest deciding factor in this year’s election?

A: The biggest deciding factor had to have been how many women and colored people were voting for a certain candidate since many teamed up to go against certain values.

Q: Where were you when you found out who won the election?

A: I was at my house with my family.

Q: When do you think America was great?

A: I would never say we were “great”; I think we’ve just had our ups and downs.

Q: Why do you think Trump’s victory was such a surprise?

A: Trump was portrayed as a horrible person in social media, so we all assumed that nobody would vote for him based on all the things he had said about women and about minorities, but apparently there had been a lot of closeted Trump voters.

Q: How does the election outcome make you feel?

A: I’m not even a little bit okay with it, but whatever.


 

Sam Slaughter, senior:

Q: Who do you think these results will most positively and most negatively affect?

A: (no comment)

Q: What do you think was the biggest deciding factor in this year’s election?

A: The fact that everyone is fed up with the government– they just want an outside person to [see] through their vote that they want a change. And Hillary represents the past years of the government, so they don’t want to vote for her, sadly.

Q: Where were you when you found out who won the election?

A: I went to bed because I didn’t want to watch it because I knew Donald Trump was going to win. When I woke up in the morning, I was laying in my bed, and I took out my phone, and I looked it up, and I saw it, and I went back to bed.

Q: When do you think America was great?

A: America is still pretty awesome; I’ve always liked America. Now I’m kind of ashamed to be here, but that will pass hopefully. I have hope for the future, I have to.

Q: Why do you think Trump’s victory was such a surprise?

A: (no comment)

Q: How does the election outcome make you feel?

A:  It makes me feel sad. I’m kind of worried about women’s rights because I’m a girl. I’m also kind of freaked out about who [Trump] is going to pick for the Supreme Court person. I don’t want our country to go backwards on the social issues.


 

Gillian Beginski, junior:

Q: Who do you think these results will most positively and most negatively affect?

A: I think illegal immigrants and potential immigrants are the most negatively affected because a cornerstone of Trump’s campaign was to crack down on illegal immigration. Middle class and working class Americans are the most positively affected because Trump talked about lowering middle class taxes and helping people enter the workforce domestically.

Q: What do you think was the biggest deciding factor in this year’s election?

A: I think the biggest deciding factor of the election was how much individuals care about economics and security versus social justice.

Q: Where were you when you found out who won the election?

A: I was sitting on my couch watching CNN and Fox at the same time.

Q: When do you think America was great?

A: I think America has always been great because of our use of democracy, but I think in the past, and currently, there are dark parts of our country’s history. That is true for any nation.

Q: Why do you think Trump’s victory was such a surprise?

A: Trump’s victory was such a surprise because some of the states he had won were not projected to be Republican-leading states.”

Q: How does the election outcome make you feel?

A:  (no comment)


 

Sarah Parduhn, freshman:

Q: Who do you think these results will most positively and most negatively affect?

A: The results will positively affect the people who are conservative, the Republicans…. It will negatively affect most people/animals. The environment will get so much worse. Muslims now walk around afraid that someone may do something to them. It negatively affects the Latinos, immigrants and women. It affects the LGBT community, the Democratic women/men in the government as they will probably be fired.

Q: What do you think was the biggest deciding factor in this year’s election?

A: The media by far. Most people are on the internet, are on social media these days, and it can really change a person’s viewpoint on a candidate.            

Q: Where were you when you found out who won the election?

A: I woke up and checked my phone like I do every morning and saw the results. Kind of ruined my day.

Q: When do you think America was great?

A: America was great when great things happened– when gay marriage was legal, when women could vote; it was the things that united us closer together. When we had a great leader, that’s what made America great.

Q: Why do you think Trump’s victory was such a surprise?
A: No one saw it coming. Everyone was betting on Hillary Clinton. I think it was because everyone thought Trump was a joke, but I guess, obviously, not everybody thought that.

Q: How does the election outcome make you feel?

A: I’ve gotten used to him being president, and there’s nothing we can do because of the democracy we are, but the people who voted for him make me afraid. I’m afraid for the Muslims, or anyone of a certain minority. I’m afraid for women/girls. The amount of citizens that voted for him was a huge number, and it upsets me that such a great country full of freedom thought he could make America great again.