Luis Hernandez: Last week and throughout Tuesday night we chatted with undergraduate students at Johnson & Wales University about their perspectives on the election. Today, we’re going to get their take on the results. Joining me in-studio is 22-year-old Independent Kay Allen of Pennsylvania. Kay, great to have you back.
Kay Allen: Good to be back.
Hernandez: Also joining me, 21-year-old independent William Bonnano of New Jersey. William, welcome.
William Bonnano: Hey, how are you doing.
Hernandez: Great to have you. Also 21-year-old Democrat, Darlene Gonzalez of Texas, Darlene, welcome back.
Darlene Gonzalez: Hi.
Hernandez: And also joining us, 18-year-old Democrat Tyler Miles of Rhode Island. Tyler, great to have you.
Tyler Miles: Thanks for having me.
Hernandez: Okay, you were all at the election night watch party on Tuesday night over at the university. By the end of the party, we didn’t have the results yet. We didn’t know. I’m wondering when did you learn of the results, the final results of the presidential election and your overall reaction to it? And I’m going to start here on my right side, William. I’ll start with you.
Bonnano: I found out when I woke up in my living room around, like 3 a.m. I saw that it was president-elect Donald Trump. My reaction was just like freshly waking up. I was like, “Wow. I didn’t expect that to happen.”
Hernandez: All right, Tyler, what about you? When did you find out? And yeah, just your reaction?
Miles: Yeah, so the night of, I probably went to sleep around two or three in the morning with no real results yet. I woke up around 7 a.m. the next morning in total shock. I had a lot of faith that this country was more concerned with the rights of its own citizens than a quote “better economy” but I was proven wrong.
Hernandez: All right Kay, what about you? When did you find out? And your reaction?
Allen: Well, in all honesty the writing was kind of on the wall by like 11 o’clock. So I had kind of figured everything out by then, but I didn’t know for sure. I went home. I have chronic nightmares, so I had my regular nightly nightmares, woke up, looked at my phone and thought, “this isn’t any better.” So, yeah, I found, I woke up, refreshed the page, and found out then.
Hernandez: And Darlene, what about you?
Gonzalez: So I went home after the watch party like everyone else. And, you know, kind of hoped for the best, because it was still earlyish in the night. So I was like, you know, maybe it’s the red mirage. Maybe we’ll see like the blue states come in. I woke up around six in the morning and also immediately looked into my phone and refreshed the page and saw that Trump won, and I was devastated.
Hernandez: I think if I recall Kay, you had already voted in another election before this, right?
Allen: Yes, I’ve voted in a number of elections at this point.
Hernandez: Okay, let me ask the rest of the room, though, because I wanted to get a sense of your take on everything you experienced in the process. You gotta see how this election plays out. You get to see, because this time you had stakes in it, because you voted. You know what it was like to watch as the night progressed and the votes are coming in, and the states start changing colors, and you start to see the map fill out, and you start to get the sense of what’s going on. I wanted to just get a feel for what you were feeling and thinking throughout the night. William, let me start with you. Go ahead.
Bonnano: My first initial thought was, “Wow, that’s a lot of red.” So that was the first thing I started to notice. It was mainly all the states that I figured. It was the Midwest, the South, which mainly is more conservative. But then I kept on looking at Pennsylvania and Michigan, like the states that Kamala needed to win. And I was like, okay, she only has the area outside of Philadelphia – Allentown. And it kept on getting more red. And I figured. I was like, “Okay, I think another four years.”
Hernandez: What do you think? What does that tell you about the country, how the country is shaped? You know, as you’re seeing the map, because that’s a different way to look at the country, is this map of just two colors. Which I mean, again, doesn’t mean everybody in that section is red or everybody in the section is blue. But I don’t know, what is it that you’re thinking about as you watch that?
Bonnano: You know, you gotta shift perspectives because I grew up in a blue state. I grew up right outside New York City, which mainly, like everybody’s mainly Democrat or progressive [in the NYC area]. But you know, not everybody has the same viewpoint as you, and there’s a lot of people in this country. And I honestly wasn’t too surprised.
Hernandez: Tyler, what about you? I would just want to get a sense of what it was like for you as you’re watching the night progress and everything is happening. I don’t know, is there something that jumped out at you?
Miles: Yeah, certainly watching the map unfold was a different experience being a first time voter. I’ve watched the map unfold before. Obviously elections have happened in my lifetime, but having stakes in it and having been a part of that map and having contributed to that map was an entirely different experience. And understanding the premise of the red mirage and the blue wave and how that unfolded last election gave really interesting insight and definitely gave me, I think, some false hope around the way that that map was unfolding. And saying, “okay, well, in the morning, this could totally shift towards a more blue perspective.” Unfortunately, that is not what happened that night but it was definitely a really interesting way to look at things throughout the watch party.
Hernandez: Do you view politics differently in any way because of your experience during election night?
Miles: Certainly, I think this election has changed my perspective on this country and the people in it and how we view each other as humans and fellow Americans.
Credit: Paul C. Kelly Campos/The Public’s Radio
Hernandez: Darlene, I just wanted to come back to you briefly. Just take me through the night a little bit, and I wanted to get a sense from you of if there is anything about the evening election night that jumps out at you.
Gonzalez: Throughout the night it was just a lot of nerves and stuff. And so, you know, seeing those first red states pop up is always a little nerve wracking. But I try to remind myself that the bigger cities will come in later because there’s more people, so there’s more counting to do, so they will come in later. Yeah, just trying to keep my hopes up.
Hernandez: Okay, no, that’s perfect. Let me ask each of you this, in four years we do it again. All of you will probably be out of school by then. I’m going to take it so I just want to get a sense from each of you – how do you feel about your future? And it’s not just who’s in the White House, but the state of the economy, the state of the world as it is. How are you viewing your future? So let me come back around over here and I’m going to start with you, William. Go ahead. What are you thinking? What are you feeling about your future?
Bonnano: Hopeful, as always. The only thing I was thinking about – we can do it in 2016 to 2020, and from Joe Biden to now. I think that we all have a hopeful future. And I don’t think that we should let one election bring us down. And always remember this, in 2026 midterms we can always bounce back, if the Republicans have or the GOP have a standing majority in both the House and the Senate. Hopefully in 2026 if we want to see change, we can do it. I always have hope. So gotta be optimistic.
Miles: I have definitely, admittedly, spent the last 48 hours grieving my future and what the future of this country looks like. But after listening to Vice President Harris’ concession remarks last night I was reminded that it is not time to give up. It is time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. You had just mentioned that we have the midterms in 2026 and that’s our chance to make change again. But it really starts – it started yesterday and it continues on. We need to be the change that we want to see in the world. We have to keep telling our stories for us, we have to keep living for us, we have to keep fighting that fight for us, and to see that better tomorrow, that we hope for and for our children.
Hernandez: Thank you so much for that. Kay, what about you? How are you feeling about your future?
Allen: I have never been an optimist, and I am not optimistic now that the supposed checks and balances that keep the government inefficient and safe are not there. There is not just a conservative rule, but a Trump conservative rule in the President, in the Supreme Court, in the Senate and in the House. And that, by the general belief of experts in their fields, is not good. Economists don’t believe that’s good. Environmentalists don’t believe that’s good. Social scientists don’t believe that’s good. I am not optimistic. I’m gonna go through-day-by-day, you really don’t get a choice when you wake up in the morning regardless. But I’m not optimistic.
Hernandez: Okay well, thank you for sharing that. I appreciate it. I’ve been speaking with Johnson and Wales students. Again, I want to thank them so much for their time. William Bonnano, Darlene Gonzalez, Tyler Miles and Kay Allen, I really do appreciate your time, and thank you for being as open as you’ve been and the way you’re feeling right now. So again, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
All: Thank you.
The opinions expressed by these students are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Johnson & Wales University.
Find more of our elections coverage at thepublicsradio.org/2024elections.
Election 2024 coverage by The Public’s Radio is sponsored in part by Ascent Audiology & Hearing, Providence Picture Frame and Rustigian Rugs.
