What do UD students think of Trump and Hillary?

Whats going on(for those of you living under rocks)

News companies(including Huffington Post, CNN, Washington Post, and more) have published pieces claiming that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton would be the two most disliked presidential candidates in history. According to a Huffington Post article, “The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows 56 per cent of voters holding a negative view of Hillary… Meanwhile, 65 per cent of voters view The Donald negatively”(Mogulescu).

With ratings like these, it’s a wonder that either nominee is still in the race, but apparently being well liked might not determine whether a nominee will win the candidacy. Now that Cruz and Kasich have dropped out, and Bernie is burning out, it appears that Hillary and Trump will make it to the championship round.

What UD wants

I was curious to see how UD students felt about the possibility of Hillary and Trump becoming our presidential candidates, especially with that possibility becoming more and more imminent each day. A poll that I sent out to some UD students showed that 82 per cent of those who responded don’t like Trump as a presidential candidate, and Hillary followed close behind in disapproval with 75.4 per cent of respondents don’t like Clinton as a candidate.

Seeing as college students tend to be more liberal, I was not surprised to see that 47.5 per cent said they would vote for Hillary, while only 24.6 per cent said they’d vote for trump. 4.9 per cent of people who responded said they’d vote along party lines either way, and 23 per cent claim they’d rather not vote at all if Hillary and Trump are our candidates. When I asked whether students would vote for a third party candidate over Clinton or Trump 50 per cent said they would, 36.7 per cent said they wouldn’t, and 13.3 per cent admitted that they didn’t know what a third party candidate was. I also asked two students the following questions.

If Bernie Sanders were to run as an independent candidate, would you vote for him? Why?

Amjed Hallak, Electrical Engineering Major, 1st year student

“I’d vote for Bernie if he ran as an independent candidate. Even though I believe that neither Clinton, Trump, nor Sanders are candidates that are fit to uphold presidency, Sanders tends to have more similar beliefs to my personal perspectives than the other candidates do.”

If Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton end up being the presidential candidates for the Republican and Democratic parties, who will you vote for? Why?

Keenan Faison, Music Education Major(Voice), 3rd year student

“Hillary because I’m not a sick, racist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, fatphobic, classist, evil dictator, spawned from the Devil…”

It appears that UD students(some more than others) not only agree with the nation in their dislike of the two nominees, but they actually dislike them more than the general electorate. The fact that 50 per cent of students said they would vote for a third party candidate shows that at least half of them want someone(maybe Bernie) to run as an independent against Clinton and Trump. However, there are reasons why a third party won’t win the election.

Why a third party candidate won’t win

A third party candidate has never won a presidential election in the United States. Maybe with our current situation, a third party candidate will slide onto the ballot and win the election this year… But probably not, and here’s why. Political parties have always acted as a guide for voters, especially in our two party dominated system. So, people tend to use their party alignment to decide who they’re voting for. In this case that means Hillary for the Democrats, and Trump for the Republicans. Furthermore, in instances where there has been a strong third party candidate most voters have still chosen to support their party, out of fear of splitting the votes and awarding a victory to the opposing party. And as states have the right to make their own election rules, many states make it very difficult for third party candidates to even make it on the ballot. For these, and many other reasons, I’m confident that Hill-dawg or The Donald will be our next President. But, hey, maybe I’ll be wrong, and look like an idiot. We’ll see…