Editor’s note: The majority of interviews in this article were conducted before the election results were announced.
For the past 36 years, California’s electoral votes have gone to a Democratic candidate. The 2024 election was no different with Kamala Harris winning California with 58.2% of the votes as of Nov. 9, along with a 57% voter turnout compared to 80.67% in 2020.
The California Democratic Party is the nation’s largest statewide party, and Los Angeles is ranked the 18th most liberal city in the United States, but not all Angelenos are liberal. In the 2020 presidential election, 23.9% of Californians voted Republican and the percentage of voters in Los Angeles County increased from 23.9% to 24.7% over the past four years. In this election, 33.5% of voters supported Trump compared to 26.8% in the 2020 election.
According to NBC Los Angeles, voter turnout decreased by 10% since the last election due to an “enthusiasm gap,” where voters do not want to support Trump but also didn’t endorse Harris.
The Oracle thought it was important to provide broader political perspectives to educate the community on opinions that are less prevalent at Archer.
Although University of California Los Angeles senior Daniel Naval says his campus feels primarily liberal, there is a quiet but strong conservative presence. Naval said being liberal is far more acceptable in Los Angeles, and when people assume everyone is liberal this creates a tough environment to express differing perspectives. In class, when professors and students discuss their distaste for Trump, he said it puts him in an uncomfortable position since he would have voted for Trump.
“In California, I don’t feel my vote really matters that much, but if I were to vote, I’d probably vote for Trump. Not because I think he’s this amazing person — he’s definitely very flawed — but Kamala sort of rubs me the wrong way,” Naval said. “She seems like a very fake person to me, while Trump seems very real. She’s basically been in office for four years now, and I feel like the country has only gotten worse.”
World history teacher Nicholas Graham has been a voter in Spain, Britain and, most recently, the United States. He noted the US is the only country that has you register for a political party.
“I would probably lean more toward the Democrats. But there are some things that for me, I think that the Republican Party their arguments are certainly worth listening to,” Graham said. “It’s frustrating if — a lot of the time — arguments and discussions are simply shut down and considered to be beyond the pale.”
Graham said he finds it disheartening that Trump is condemned no matter what he says. He said he would not vote for Trump, but aspects of his foreign policy should be examined rather than shut down or immediately criticized.
“Sometimes the other side is right, or at least is worth listening to. I don’t know how people feel that they’re going to solve problems if the other side isn’t, at least listened to. It’s almost like you’re allowed to have lively debate. But here’s the spectrum of political opinion, you’re only really allowed to sort of debate within this very narrow space within the spectrum,” Graham said. “It’s almost as if these other ideas — there are some ideas that are beyond the pale, don’t get me wrong. But I thought to myself, Look, can we not at least listen to these ideas?”
Over the past couple of decades, polarization has increased between Republicans and Democrats. For example, social media algorithms are intended to steer users towards their own viewpoints to maximize audience engagement and profit. According to Pew Research, both Republicans and Democrats have progressed further to their respective sides, making each party appear more extremist. Naval thinks the right is becoming more radical in reaction to the social beliefs of the Democratic Party. He said he feels Democrats are pushing their agendas on all people and want everyone to align with their values.
“It’s disheartening to not allow people to hear the other side, or see the other side painted as unintellectual. I don’t think the other side is given an honest and fair look. But, sometimes both sides can come off as self-righteous and ‘Oh, we’re the only right way,’ and if you don’t subscribe to our beliefs, then you’re a bad person,” Naval said. “These are complicated issues that people try to wrestle with, and they’re coming at it from their background and what they’ve experienced in their cultural and religious and other beliefs that they hold. It’s complicated, I wish it was different. I wish that conservative values were painted in more of an intellectual and better light.”
The election results were announced by the Associated Press, and have been updated to show that the House Of Representatives, along with the Senate, has a Republican majority. Graham said there needs to be repair in the Democratic Party, especially after Democratic nominee Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election.
“What’s going to be interesting now, is the direction that the Democratic party goes in. I don’t want to exaggerate, but it may be on the verge of an almost existential crisis. I mean, it’s lost an election. It’s got a serious problem in that it is failing to appeal to more and more low-income, working-class voters,” Graham said. “You’re already seeing a lot of infighting about the identity of the Democratic Party — who it is, what it stands for and how it’s perceived. The interesting thing now is to see how the Democratic Party will rebuild itself, [and] who it looks to for leadership. It doesn’t have a leader that people can point to and say ‘that’s the future.”
