University of Maryland students attended a watch party held by this university’s College Republicans chapter Tuesday night to watch election returns come in ahead of Donald Trump’s win against Kamala Harris in the presidential race.
Ethan Vinodh, the group’s president, said he organized the event to bring students together, regardless of their political affiliation.
“We just wanted a space for people on campus to … have a commemoration of this pretty historical night, either way it goes,” the junior cell biology and genetics major said.
Vinodh believes Trump’s campaign this year was stronger than his 2016 bid and Harris’s campaign, he said.
Junior neuroscience major Samuel Rojas said he feels society has become more divided throughout this year’s election, and wishes the country could come together.
Rojas supported former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s campaign for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat because of the bipartisanship he has shown even before campaigning for the position, he said. Hogan lost to Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, the Associated Press reported.
[Angela Alsobrooks wins Maryland US Senate race]
He attended the watch party because he wanted to stay updated on election results.
“I’m just here to know what the final decision of the American people is,” Rojas said. “I don’t have high hopes for either [presidential] candidate.”
Vinodh said Israel’s war in Gaza and the war in Ukraine were two important foreign affairs issues during this year’s election. Trump could stop these conflicts and improve overall foreign affairs if he is elected president, Vinodh said.
Vinodh said during the watch party that he was looking forward to seeing election results in battleground states like Pennsylvania. Trump earned the state’s electoral votes early Wednesday morning, tipping his lead to 270 electoral votes and securing his win.
Giovanni Ergueta, a senior public policy major, also said he isn’t too fond of either presidential candidate. He voted for Hogan for Maryland’s U.S. Senate seat because he believed Hogan would have been more willing to work across the aisle and create unity between political parties than Alsobrooks.
[The Diamondback’s 2024 election coverage]
Ergueta said this year was his first time voting because he didn’t support either candidate during the last presidential election.
His mindset was different going into this year’s, he said, because he felt it was necessary for him to help make an impact on the future.
“I wanted to take some role in saying I voted and I partook in it, that way I can engage in some discussion about it,” Ergueta said.
Ergueta added that young people, especially students at this university who are in close proximity to Washington, D.C., need to take action instead of being loosely engaged.
Though Vinodh was unable to vote in this year’s election because he isn’t a U.S. citizen, he said it’s necessary for people to vote in order to create change or protect current policies.
While many conservatives in Maryland believe their vote doesn’t matter because it won’t change the state’s overall political outcome during the election, Vinodh said he doesn’t agree with that attitude.“We need to reflect the values of our society,” Vinodh said. “One day it will change, but that needs to start today.”
