Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks to the crowd as she introduces Bernie Sanders March 2. Omar was reelected to represent Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District.
The 2020 election results provoke varying reactions
Minnesota state, federal candidates reelected
After discovering former Vice President Joe Biden was declared the projected winner of the 2020 election, junior Semona Robel said she felt an overwhelming sense of relief, as she believes Biden will work to improve the country while protecting the people.
“It was just really relief. (That is) the ultimate way to describe it,” Robel said. “After four years of Trump and experiencing the way that he divided this country, I truly think that it was just a huge feeling of relief.”
Senior Elliot Salmon said he supports the reelection of President Donald Trump as he believes Trump has and will continue to support minority communities.
“I would be disappointed to see Biden in office. I think he has a reputation where he’s been in office for 47 plus years and has actually hurt many minority communities that are currently vouching for him,” Salmon said. “I would prefer to see Trump win because despite him being a very inflammatory person or the things he has said, he continues to do big things for the black and Hispanic communities in terms of job reform, prison reform and even in the medical field of dropping drug prices.”
Although he is feeling good that Trump was not reelected, junior Paris Lim said he is still feeling let down as he dislikes Biden as well.
“I feel good about it in that Trump is no longer going to be the president because I don’t like him at all. But at the same time, Biden does have allegations of sexual misconduct against him and he is not what I would have chosen,” Lim said. “Definitely not my first pick as far as Democratic candidates would have gone.”
As the week progressed the race seemed to lean more in Biden’s favor so Biden victory came as no surprise to sophomore Isaac Israel.
“I wasn’t surprised once I learned all the new developments after Wednesday morning,” Israel said. “Tuesday night it was looking very grim for Biden. Then, when he pulled ahead in Wisconsin and Michigan, then I wasn’t surprised it was a win.”
Despite not being a fan of Biden as he disagrees with many of his policy plans, senior Ben Lubka said he is happy with the results.
“I dislike Joe Biden, as he has many faults like on the economy, he’s not good for foreign policies. But, unfortunately, with most elections, you have to pick between two candidates that are not very good. And the reality for me that Trump has very objective negative qualities,” Lubka said.
Salmon said he is frustrated by people on social media declaring Biden the president-elect as the full electoral process has not been completed so he is only the projected presidential elect.
“I believe that there is an electoral process that is in place to verify that, there are court systems and I believe that there has been some sort of electoral fraud in this process. So, I believe that he currently is not the winner. That is not to say that he will not not be the winner,” Salmon said.
To Lim, the president matters because of the policies they set and when it comes to policies, Lim said he supports Biden over Trump.
“I know that Biden is going to be better for people of color, better for LGBT people and better for women than Trump is,” Lim said. “I don’t know if he’s going to be actually good, but I know he’ll be better than Trump and that’s good enough for me.”
Like Lim, Israel said he supports Biden in terms of policy, however, he also values his integrity.
“I’m probably more in line with (Biden’s) moderate streak in the Senate and as Vice President and now as a presidential candidate,” Israel said. “Aside from the policy, I think he’s more respectable than Trump.”
Throughout the course of the election, Robel said she felt the country was divided and the political climate felt tense.
“I feel like the people that support Trump are extreme Trump supporters and the people that support Biden are extreme Biden supporters,” Robel said. ”There are people that are really happy, and then there are people that are just really disappointed and angry.”
The current two-party system frustrates Lim as he said he feels the candidate options have gotten worse over time.
“I hate (the two-party system) so much; it made me really disappointed and frustrated because over the last couple of elections, it just seems like it’s pretty deep that most other candidates have been getting worse in my opinion,” Lim said. “It’s become more of a battle of who’s less bad than who’s actually good.”
The phrase “settle for Biden” represents and stresses how Democrats were settling for Biden which to Robel is an important thing to remember.
“Biden is not a perfect candidate. I would argue that he wasn’t even the best candidate. But he is much better than Trump and sometimes in life it is necessary to settle in that a lot of people would rather have someone like Joe Biden, compared to someone who is openly racist, homophobic, transphobic (and) xenophobic. So basically someone like Trump,” Robel said.
It is crucial that everyone, including students, care about the election as all elected officials make decisions that affect everyone, according to Lubka.
“It’s very important,” Lubka said, “Not just the president but every elected official because the people who are in government, especially the President, have a very large effect on your day-to-day (even if) It may not seem like it.”
