The ODYSSEY Media Group interviewed 16 students, advisers and journalists from around the country about their reactions to the Nov. 5 presidential election at the National High School Journalism Convention in Philadelphia. However, many of their reactions tell a different story to what happened on Election Night, when Republican nominee Donald Trump was declared the 47th president of the United States.
The ODYSSEY chose stakeholders at random and omitted no students who were interviewed. The views of these stakeholders do not reflect the views of the ODYSSEY as a media organization. Scroll down to see what they had to say.
Photo by Victoria Garland
“Harris did not do nearly as well as the previous Democratic national nominees, and Trump did better in Philly than he had the previous two elections. (That’s) what I thought was the big story out of the election for Philly, and it was reflective of what was happening nationally. Trump did better in cities than he had previously, and he did better with poor and working-class voters. We don’t really have a full understanding of exactly what happened and why. That’s (my) initial take from the election.”
— Matt Katz,
Executive producer for City Cast Philly,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Photo by Peter Atchley
“I know a lot of people I saw on my social media were extremely worried. They have every right to be because at least where I’m from, Las Vegas, it’s pretty diverse, so there’s a lot of immigrants, and they worry about what’s going to happen to them. There are (still) many limits in place to stop (Donald Trump) from doing very extreme things. I know (the Republicans) won the Senate, as well. A lot of people are worried about the power he has to pass things, and I just don’t want to believe that he’ll be able to take such extreme measures and be able to pass them.”
— Emily Jian,
Las Vegas, Nevada
“These policies that (Donald Trump) wants to bring, they’re not gonna happen overnight. (There is) this whole legislative process that takes time. I’m not saying it’s not something to fear or (is) a big concern, but it’s not the end of the world.”
— Matthew Ramirez,
Strath Haven High School,
Wallingford, Pennsylvania
“These policies that (Donald Trump) wants to bring, they’re not gonna happen overnight. (There is) this whole legislative process that takes time. I’m not saying it’s not something to fear or (is) a big concern, but it’s not the end of the world.”
— Matthew Ramirez,
Strath Haven High School,
Wallingford, Pennsylvania
“I was honestly a little disgusted. I’m leaving the country when I turn 18, so it’s okay, in my opinion. But I’m so ashamed of us, and I think honestly, we’re a little bit disgusting. I think a lot of my friends from different countries are thinking we’re the most stupid people ever.”
— Natalia Klonowski,
Las Vegas, Nevada
Photo by Onyx Mills
“I could definitely feel a lot of the energy that was happening on Monday right before the election and there was (also) a lot of energy after the election. We had a lot of differing views in our town. So we had some kids who were very happy with the results and we also had some kids who were not very happy and some people were very emotional. There were some fights that broke out in our school from it, so it was definitely very heated in some classes.”
— Laura White,
Algonquin Regional High School,
Northborough, Massachusetts
“I was pretty surprised, not by the results, but by how fast they came out, and that Trump won almost all the swing states, which I did not see coming. All my friends were like, ‘I’m gonna pull an all-nighter and see the results.’ I (was) like, ‘(They’re) not gonna come out until Wednesday or Thursday.’ (But) I woke up to some breaking news, and I was pretty shocked, because I thought it was gonna be 50/50 split. So that was kind of absurd in my mind.”
— Max Tonkon,
Walter B. Saul High School,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“For me personally, it was upsetting. My parents are both super-Republican and (at) my mom’s work, a lady brought in cookies with Trump’s face on them. So, her and my dad were excited about it but for me, I feel like this was really important (election) especially with women’s reproductive rights. That’s really important to me and something I value a lot so (it) was really upsetting. ”
— Anne Sullivan,
Glenbrook South High School,
Glenview, Illinois
“For me personally, it was upsetting. My parents are both super-Republican and (at) my mom’s work, a lady brought in cookies with Trump’s face on them. So, her and my dad were excited about it but for me, I feel like this was really important (election) especially with women’s reproductive rights. That’s really important to me and something I value a lot so (it) was really upsetting.”
— Anne Sullivan,
Glenbrook South High School,
Glenview, Illinois
It didn’t hit me the night of. I stayed up until like, 5:30 a.m. when they called the election because I just couldn’t believe it, (then) I went to bed. The moment I woke up, I was just sobbing, and I was like, ‘Oh my god I can’t believe that happened, I devastated for so many reasons. Literally everyone’s rights are in danger now that he is back in office and it was just mortifying to me to think that so many people would vote against the rights of people who share my identity (as a woman of color) and my friends.. It was really a rude wake-up call.
— Arushi Saxena,
Pennsylvania State University graduate student,
Member of the Harris-Walz campaign
Photo by Cooper Jones
“When something happens, like an election, there’s so many different narratives that are being pushed by so many people. Living in a very liberal community you’re walking outside and you’re only seeing Harris-Walz signs, you become entranced by the small area that you live in. It’s so interesting to see on a wider scale, how America feels because you don’t know how the people in Minnesota are voting. You don’t know what people in Michigan are thinking about the economy, or Arizona about the border.”
— Michael Goff,
Chesnut Hill, Pennsylvania
Photo by Andreas Dillies
“I’ve always been pretty liberal, but obviously (the Parkland High School shooting in 2018) was a difficult one and a traumatic one, and I think it shapes you even further and how you feel about gun violence and solutions to it. So, I always think about that and vote with that in mind, too, I try to find candidates that are like-minded and who have common sense approaches to that.”
— Melissa Falkowski,
Stoneman Douglas High School,
Parkland, Florida
“People still stood behind (Trump on) abortion rights, LGBTQ+ (issues), tariffs, taxes, immigration. I kind of thought that more people would have voted for Harris, so that kind of shocked me. Being in a swing state, I was just a little bit disappointed. I was like, ‘Guys, I don’t know if I can stand by this.’ I’m a female person of color, middle class, and this affects me and my future.”
Strath Haven High School,
Wallingford, Pennsylvania
“People still stood behind (Trump on) abortion rights, LGBTQ+ (issues), tariffs, taxes, immigration. I kind of thought that more people would have voted for Harris, so that kind of shocked me. Being in a swing state, I was just a little bit disappointed. I was like, ‘Guys, I don’t know if I can stand by this.’ I’m a female person of color, middle class, and this affects me and my future.”
— Evelynn Lin,
Strath Haven High School,
Wallingford, Pennsylvania
Photo by Peter Atchley
“I was very distraught, I’m not gonna lie. Around my school, it’s very liberal so everybody was like, ‘Oh yeah, Kamala is gonna win!’ But then we looked at the results, and we’re like, ‘Why is it so low?’ It was supposed to be a closer race, and in some states (it was). But we were like, ‘Wow, why isn’t this closer?’”
— Drue Ramos,
Southwest Career and Technical Academy,
Las Vegas, Nevada
Photo by Mattie Pittard
“I think that there is a lot of fear in the world. And I think that (the election) just perpetuated fear for a lot of people, for what the future looks like, what now looks like.”
— Cricket Shelton ,
Bloomington High School South,
Bloomington, Indiana
Normally (calling the election) just takes so much longer, because you got to count all these ballots, but yeah, it just didn’t take all that much time, which surprised me. And I personally wasn’t surprised at the results, and I also wasn’t surprised at Trump when he won all swing states, either, because as a person who cares at least a little bit about America’s political situation, I was looking at the polls in every single state to see who was favored.
— Nicholas Cruck,
Walter B. Saul High School,
Philadelphia, Pensylvannia
“I was sleeping when the results came in, and I was kind of numb at first. When I got to school, I started crying. I was crying because my country has elected a president that was going to try his hardest to make it so that I (a transgender man) couldn’t access gender reassignment surgery and medications.”
— Gray David,
Springside Chesnut Hill Academy,
Chesnut Hill, Pennsylvania
“I was sleeping when the results came in, and I was kind of numb at first. When I got to school, I started crying. I was crying because my country has elected a president that was going to try his hardest to make it so that I (a transgender man) couldn’t access gender reassignment surgery and medications.”
— Gray David,
Springside Chesnut Hill Academy,
Chesnut Hill, Pennsylvania
Photo by Samaya Ellis
“ If you’ve decided that this person who is objectively not right for the role, is right for the role, how do you backtrack? How do you admit that you’re wrong? How do you go back and accept that a side that you’ve been vilifying for years might actually have some truth to them?”
— Tiffany Kopack,
Journalism Education Association adviser
Photo by Liya Taylor
“I’m really surprised at how many people were surprised about the results because just yesterday (the day after results came out, both sides) were claiming riots, already saying that they think it was rigged, crazy stuff within a day.”
— Marlow Whittenberg,
Walter B. Saul High School,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“It was disappointing to see that the majority of the country voted for the candidate who I did not want to win. But he won the popular vote, so, I can’t even say that he’s not popular. It’s clear that he’s the country’s choice. So, it’s unfortunate. He’s not good, he’s not gonna be a good president. He never has been, he shows contempt for institutions. (I’m) disappointed in the American people.”
— Julian Friedland,
Springside Chesnut Hill Academy,
Chesnut Hill, Pennsylvania
