The improbable has become reality. The next president of the United States will be Donald Trump.
As Oswego State students and faculty gathered in Marano Campus Center’s food court Tuesday night, they witnessed the raging climax of an intense presidential race that spanned 18 months.
In the end, it was Trump who was voted president-elect by the American people.
Tuesday night’s election party, hosted by Oswego State’s community service organization, was open for students and faculty to attend and engage in activities while watching television coverage of the election results. Attending this event was the student-run organization Vote Oswego, which dedicated much of the fall semester to encouraging students to register to vote.
“The main objective of Vote Oswego is to increase voter turnout among the young people and to get their voice heard,” Vote Oswego media intern Noah Kasman said.
Vote Oswego’s campaigning resulted in over 1,000 voter registration forms and over 1,500 absentee ballots requests from Oswego State students.
“I think the key part of Vote Oswego is that it is almost entirely student-run,” Kasman said. “You had students from SUNY Oswego reaching out to other students at SUNY Oswego. In the past it has been outside groups such as Rock the Vote coming in and organizing it.”
Although they were present at the election party, Vote Oswego did not have a hand in organizing the event. That was done mainly by Alyssa Amyotte, the coordinator of community services at The Compass. According to Amyotte, community services had undertaken civic engagement programing, which had previously held election parties during the 2008 and 2012 election nights.
“We kind of connected with [Vote Oswego],” Amyotte said. “Basically I found out everything they were doing and then saw where gaps were and decided this [election party] was one of the things we would do.”
Partygoers watched the buildup to Trump’s win, which occurred after the conclusion of the party. The real estate mogul and reality TV star turned in a dominating performance during the national election, far outpacing democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. As of publication, resident-elect Trump had raked in 276 electoral votes in a contest that came down to the tightly contested eleven battleground states which saw Trump win seven of them of including Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania, creating a narrow path to victory for Clinton.
Prior to Trump’s victory, students such as junior Peterly Jean Baptiste weighed in on the possibility of living in a nation with Trump as president.
“I would be disappointed,” Baptiste said. “With Trump and the uncertainty of exactly what’s going to happen once he gets into office, I don’t think we can afford that.”
Students at the event showed support for Clinton although some, like freshman and first-time voter Connor Douglas, were not always going for the former Secretary of State.
“I voted for Hillary Clinton but I was originally a Bernie Sanders supporter,” Douglas said. “I felt like [voting for Clinton] was the best idea. Maybe I didn’t support all of her opinions but I thought it was the best thing for me and I felt like it was the best option for our country.”
During Trump’s victory speech early Wednesday morning, he pointed out that Clinton had called him to concede the election. In the hours after Trump’s victory, protests erupted in Oakland, California as the nation reacted to the election’s outcome.
Junior Aleisha Benjamin reflected on the elongated presidential race.
“Even at the beginning of our election, there were so many who were just unqualified,” Benjamin said. “They don’t have the political backing to be leading our country and I feel like they didn’t have the knowledge of politics. Even beginning there, before there was two people, it’s just been a mess.”
“I actually thought this election was a joke when it first started off,” senior Esosa Wadiae said. “Trump comes from more of a business background and Hillary Clinton was previously Republican and now that she switched to being a democrat, I feel as though she’s not really concrete with her ideas or her political stances. Also for Trump, his policies are also not effective for gay rights or immigration policy.”
Following Trump’s win, president Barack Obama extended an invitation for him to visit the White House on Thursday. Given the polarization of the American people from the election, the meeting may prove timely. Trump’s rhetoric struck a nerve with voters, prompting discussions about social issues such as immigration, gay rights, feminism and civil rights.
“I don’t want to say that [Trump] creates these ideas [of hatred] because I think they were already there,” Benjamin said. “But I have noticed that there has been more violent acts occurring and I don’t know if it’s because media shows it more or we have more power with our handheld device to capture it, but I think [those ideas] will continue or even grow.”
