Concerns for immigrant security, LGBTQ+ rights, civil liberties and more surfaced in a panel discussion.
The Western Washington University community reflected upon the aftermath of the 2024 U.S. presidential election in a panel discussion Thursday, Nov. 7, and questioned where the country goes from here.
“[President-elect Donald] Trump is coming into his second term as president in a very different landscape than he was coming in 2016,” said Catherine Wineinger, associate professor of political science at Western. “He’s coming in with a unified Republican Party, and a much Trumpier Republican Party.”
Now that the Supreme Court has the power to grant immunity to the executive branch of government while the president is serving the country, this decision could potentially embolden Trump in a different way from 2016, said Rudy Alamillo, assistant professor of political science at Western.
The Republican House and Senate will also have less hesitation to stop his outlandish policies this time around, Alamillo said. “Trump has done a good job of reshaping the Republican Party in his image,” he said.
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign failed because she had to tie herself to current President Joe Biden’s legacy, Wineiger said.
“Harris had to navigate the presidential candidate process in an unfair way,” she said. “America is ready to elect a woman — and a woman of color.”
Race and gender did have an impact on the election, but there were a myriad of other issues with Harris’s campaign, said Sophia Maynard, a sophomore economics and political science major at Western. She is also the outreach coordinator at the ASWWU Office of Civic Engagement.
“When women of color run for office, they win,” she said. “I would hate for the Democratic Party to shift gears and think that they can never back a woman of color for president again and must stick to white old men — that would not be progressing forward.”
Counting the Latino, Gen Z male votes
Around 46% of Hispanic and Latino male voters chose Trump in the 2024 election, up from 32% in the 2020 election when Trump lost to Biden, according to an exit poll conducted by Edison Research.
This result did not shock Alamillo. Hispanic and Latino voters are U.S. citizens, and since they have legal status in the country, they are not affected by immigration issues and threats of deportation.
“Latinos are conservative south of the border,” said Pedro Cameselle-Pesce, associate professor of history at Western. “Research and forecasts show that Latinos will remain conservative 40–50 years from now.”
One out of four Americans will be Latino by 2060, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Wineinger said she was surprised about the Generation Z vote — particularly among Gen Z men casting their ballot for Trump. “We expected younger generations to be more liberal; more progressive,” she said.
But Trump’s emphasis on masculinity during an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast captured the attention of young male voters, Wineinger said. Trump’s appearances on podcasts geared to men between 18-29 years old was a contributing factor to the election results.
Trump picked up a larger proportion of voters under 30 than any Republican presidential candidate since 2008, according to AP VoteCast.
When Trump was first elected in 2016, a majority of Gen Z men were in middle school, Maynard said.
“A bunch of young men were spending their formative years dominated by the presence of Trump holding office,” she said. “This could have contributed to the way they voted for the first time.”
Growing generational divide about politics
Generational experiences shape the way people react to momentous events, said Miguel Garduno Munoz, a senior cybersecurity major at Western.
Garduno Munoz grew up in Mexico and has been involved in politics his entire life. His mother worked for the Mexican government in the judiciary branch for 28 years.
“I’m not sure if it’s my age, or if it’s my experience coming from a country where disappointing elections happen almost every six years, that contributes to my skepticism,” he said. “The younger generation of college students here at Western believes that Washington state is in a perfect blue bubble with protections against [Trump.]”
The panel tried to convey optimism while remaining objective, Garduno Munoz said.
“I am positive no one — not even the people on the panel or the greatest political critics — knows how the situation is going to look like in the United States until Jan. 20, 2025, and after that,” he said.
Blue wave crashes into a red wall
Both Maynard and Garduno Munoz went to election night parties on campus, anticipating a blue wave and celebrating the first Black and South Asian woman elected president. Once the tide started turning in Trump’s favor, Maynard said she experienced the heaviest crash of endorphins.
“I was very optimistic about Harris winning — which in retrospect, I probably should not have been,” she said.
Maynard and Garduno Munoz watched in dismay as Trump captured not only the Electoral College, but the popular vote. They also did not anticipate the Republican party making significant gains in both the House and Senate.
Garduno Munoz said he forced himself to stay up late in hopes of a true-blue miracle.
“I kept watching election coverage way past midnight because for some reason, I needed to see Pennsylvania turn red,” Garduno Munoz said. “After all that was said and done by the Republican candidate, people were still willing to elect him — to me, that was the real tragedy of the night.”
Healing power of animals, art and exercise
Before the panel discussion, Western students had the chance to befriend some barnyard animals — including goats, chickens, rabbits and a miniature horse — in Red Square.
Organized by Western’s Office of Civic Engagement and The Centers for Student Access, Community, and Intercultural Engagement, the Animals as Natural Therapy nonprofit brought their emotional support animals from the farm to campus. Emotional support animals can help with social engagement and community interaction, according to ESA Pet.
“We were anticipating a lot of anxiety and distress no matter the outcome of the election, so we proactively arranged for on-campus comfort from animals,” Maynard said. “We wanted to bring a lot of people together to talk about their feelings and know they are not alone, and this is not the end.”
Other higher education institutions in Washington state followed in Western’s footsteps in organizing self-care programs after the election. The University of Washington and its satellite branch in Bothell, along with Cascadia College, offered art therapy sessions on Nov. 6. Whatcom Community College arranged an electrolytes and exercise mingle session the day after Election Day.
Contemplating America’s future
The United States is not immune from authoritarianism, Wineinger said. The way democratic backsliding has happened in modern dictatorships is a gradual decline through a legitimate process.
“It’s up to the electorate and how much leash they are willing to give Trump,” she said.
People need to pay attention to the policies the government will start to pass once Trump is back in office, Wineinger said.
“There could be many laws passed through a legitimate policy-making process that could implement anti-democratic acts, like attacks on voting rights and threats to civil liberties,” she said. “These could be a threat to democracy.”
Audience members expressed concerns about Project 2025, a federal policy agenda that proposes the mass deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, vanquishes LGBTQ+ and abortion rights, diminishes environmental protections and eliminates many federal agencies.
The Project 2025 platform cannot be executed in a representative democracy, Maynard said.
“I don’t see 90% of this agenda — even with party unity — going through,” she said. “I do have some faith in our institutions to not let the outlandish policies of birth control, women’s rights to education, and detention centers for immigrants happen.”
Protecting minorities in unprecedented times
In addition to Trump’s racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric discussed at a previous panel at Western, the president-elect pledged to roll back civil rights protections for transgender students.
Transgender youth in the United States have been contacting crisis hotlines in record numbers in the days after the election. According to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization counseling LBGTQ+ youth, the volume of contacts through its lifeline, chat and text services rose nearly 700% on Nov. 6.
Maynard said she is worried about her trans friends, along with undocumented students and their families.
“I have a strong feeling that their protections are going to be further diminished and demonized,” she said. “I will fight for their protections in Washington state.”
Garduno Munoz said he is apprehensive about the direction of the country overall when Trump becomes the 47th U.S. president in January 2025.
“If 2016 divided this nation, then 2024 definitely broke the last thread that was holding it together,” Garduno Munoz said. “Uncertain times are on the horizon. We are definitely approaching a difficult time for most minorities in this country.”
— By Catherine Skrzypinski