Leo Woods

Suffolk University students feel the pressure of election season as many approach their first official presidential vote Nov. 5 for either former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris. 

“I feel like the decision of this election is going to affect this country for a really long time, no matter which way it goes,” said Lia Sharon, a first-year law major. “Depending on which way it goes, there are two very different outcomes that no matter what, half the country’s going to hate it.” 

 For many students, this will be the first presidential election they get the opportunity to vote in.

 “I’m really happy that this is my first election,” said Catherine Madden, a senior entrepreneurship major voting for Harris. “I’ve always thought that we should have a woman as president, I’m very much a feminist liberal so I’m really excited to have the opportunity to vote for a woman to be in office.”

 Eva Simmons, a freshman politics, philosophy and economics major, is also looking forward to casting her vote for Harris this November. 

“I’m so excited. Honestly, out of all elections, this is the one I want to have a voice in,” said Simmons.

 Deciding who to vote for can be a difficult decision for all voters, choosing who should lead the country, which policies are most important and a variety of other reasons. For younger voters, there is an additional element of not relating to the politics they are seeing, a feeling Suffolk students connect with. 

 Danny Metri, a junior political science and economics double major, said that it’s difficult for him and other Gen Z people to connect with politics. 

“We’re just watching our parent’s politics basically, like Gen X and Boomer politics, and we’re just watching it play out and it really doesn’t make sense to us,” said Metri.  

 For others, the decision is a matter of who they do not want in office. 

“Donald Trump shouldn’t have been president in the first place, and I will do everything in my power to make sure he is not president again,” said Lily Hutchins, a junior pre-law major who is voting for Harris.

 Though Sharon will be voting for Harris, she said that the decisions people make in this election will have ripple effects. 

“I think that depending on who people vote for in the election it’s going to make or break our country,” said Sharon.

 The candidates disagree on most issues, including reproductive rights, immigration, climate change and gun control. Suffolk students said these are some of the most pressing issues for them in deciding who to vote for in the election. 

“For the country, I think it [is reproductive rights] literally divides people,” said Shannon Groom, a junior sports management major. “People can have their own beliefs, but this is not a beliefs thing, it is morals and it’s ethics and this is morally so wrong. When you talk to someone who’s pro-life, they’re basically denying a woman’s rights.” 

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, which established national abortion protection for nearly 50 years. Since the decision reversing Roe, it is now up to individual states to establish what their policies are on abortion. The New York Times reported 22 states have banned or restricted abortion since 2022. 

 “I was really disappointed when Roe v. Wade was overturned,” said Madden. “It was very hard for me to accept that was what my country’s policies were [becoming].”

 “I’m lucky to live in a blue state where abortion is legal,” said Hutchins. “But if the national abortion ban goes on then that’s kind of all but nothing. That’s most of what I get when I talk to people like ‘Oh you live in a blue state so it doesn’t apply to you.’ But when other women in the country are suffering, I am suffering, all women are suffering. And that is probably one of the scariest things to deal with.” 

 Harris and Trump have expressed differing opinions on what abortion laws should be in the United States. While Harris has said that women should have the right to choose what is best for them and their bodies, Trump has often changed his opinions but has supported abortion bans and restrictions in some states, according to The Washington Post. 

 Currently, there is no national abortion ban. However, students said they are worried that it could be a possibility in the future. 

“With a national abortion ban I am fairly confident that [Harris] would veto it,” said Hutchins. “I’m not too sure about Trump.” 

 Reproductive rights are not the only policies that have been dividing political parties. Gun control has been a widely controversial issue that is  important to many voters.  

Mass shootings in the U.S. have been increasing for nearly a decade. From 2015 to 2022 over 19,000 people have been shot, wounded or killed in a mass shooting, according to a study done by Everytown for Gun Safety. 

In 2021 there were a record-breaking amount of mass shootings, with 686 incidents.

“It’s super important to me that we kind of restrict that [gun policy] and make it so that we have a much more tight control over guns in the country because it’s being taken advantage of so clearly,” said Lily Harney, a first year biology major. 

 Both Trump and Harris have different perspectives on what gun control looks like, although neither has proposed a clear policy on how to put an end to school shootings and other mass shootings. 

 “It’s a little disappointing to see,” said Simmons. “I will say. I think that both sides need to take it more seriously, I think that Kamala Harris, she is vying a little more towards gun control, which I think is really good. But I just think that it needs to go further than what either of the candidates are going for.” 

 Along with mass shootings happening across the country, Annalisa Charles, a first year political science major, said it was important to her that candidates address the issue of police brutality. 

 “Just seeing which president is going to actually full-on face the fact that police brutality is a big problem in America against Black or Latino minorities,” said Charles. “I feel like seeing which candidate kind of faces that issue and addresses it, whether its posing laws prohibit some force of police officers.”

 The Harris campaign has said that they do not want to ban guns, but they do want to add restrictions. The Trump campaign does not plan on creating any restrictions on gun ownership. 

 “A lot of Republicans are like ‘don’t take our guns’ and like I don’t want to take your guns necessarily, I just want to keep deadly assault weapons out of the hands of people who should not be owning them,” said Hutchins. 

 Immigration and foreign policy is another key issue students said they were considering in their vote this election. The Trump campaign has said if he is elected, his administration would carry out the “largest deportation program in U.S. history,” according to the Associated Press. 

“I think people in this country don’t think we have any responsibility to look out for people who are escaping war and famine,” said Metri. “I think the fact that we don’t feel the need to help those people means that we’ve lost our humanity to some degree, and that’s really scary to me.”

 Gordon Williams, a first year law and political science double major, believes the idea of the “American Dream” has been lost in the U.S. 

“[The idea] that you can come into this country, no matter who you are or what you look like, no matter race, gender, sex, whatever you want to say and kind of trying to get America back into that zone of being that country, that people can come in and have a chance,” said Williams.

 The war in Gaza has become an increasingly influential issue impacting how people, especially younger people, are voting. 

 Metri said that due to the ongoing war in the Middle East, he does not have much confidence in either candidate. He said that this is what has been standing between him and deciding whether or not to vote this November. 

 “I think [Trump] would be far worse on the issue but at the same time Kamala Harris is currently in office, she’s in an administration that continues to give a blank check to Netanyahu,” said Metri. “I think the Biden administration has been awful on this issue. I’m not particularly encouraged by either of them and I hate the idea that we’re voting for lesser of two evils in this context. I wouldn’t describe either of their policies on Israel as good.” 

 Another issue that is important to Suffolk students is climate change and how the candidates would address its ongoing challenges. 

Harris has addressed the issue of climate change and said that she will be a leader in ensuring a more sustainable world. Trump has said does not fully believe that climate change is caused by human activity and has not made plans to address this issue. 

 “Trump has said a lot of things against climate change and that is just something I cannot accept as my president of my country not accepting that climate change is real,” said Madden.

 Suffolk will not have classes Nov. 5 so students and staff have the chance to vote.   

 “It’s truly going to be a turning point for what we see, how laws are being made and what laws are being passed. So I feel like, you know, just enjoy the ride,” Charles said.