Donald Trump is heading back to the White House. The presidential race was called in his favor early Wednesday morning, and Vice President Kamala Harris conceded that afternoon. An informal poll of 166 SMU students showed that the majority of campus supported Trump, but student reactions were mixed after he emerged victorious.
Senior Andrew Stricklin voted for Donald Trump and described himself as “ecstatic” on Wednesday morning.
“This is one of the first Republicans to win the popular vote in a while,” he said. Trump has not officially won the popular vote, but as of Thursday morning he leads Kamala Harris by about 4.6 million votes. Trump officially met the 270 electoral college votes at 5:34 a.m. Wednesday when the AP called Wisconsin and its 10 electoral votes for Trump.
Harris voters were more subdued.
“I’ve had better days,” said senior marketing major Aspen Lee. Lee, a registered Democrat, voted for Harris by absentee ballot in her home state of California.
“It’s upsetting that people are not voting for her because she’s a woman and voting for someone who is literally a convicted felon and is an abuser,” Lee said.
This May, Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts related to falsifying business records to pay a porn actor hush money prior to the 2016 election. He is also the first former president to be convicted of a felony. In 2023, Trump was found liable in a civil trial for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll in 1996.
Hughes-Trigg was an official voting location for Dallas County, an easy place for students, staff and professors to vote. Lines formed before the polls opened at 7 a.m. For students voting in Texas, other races included the highly anticipated race between Republican incumbent U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Democrat Colin Allred.
Cruz won, which raised morale and excitement at the watch party. Local Republicans celebrated at the Dallas County GOP and American Jewish Conservatives’ election watch party Tuesday night at TK’s Comedy, a restaurant and comedy club in Addison. A Trump cutout provided a popular photo-op. Red MAGA hats, patriotic suits and sequins, and a healthy amount of cowboy hats peppered the crowd.
As votes continued to roll in on Tuesday night, Dallas County GOP Chairman Allen West predicted Trump’s win in front of the star-spangled crowd. After West spoke around 10:30, the crowd thinned. But many younger voters and those seated in V.I.P remained to toast Trump’s impending victory.
Meanwhile, at the Dallas County Democratic Party’s election watch party, the crowd at Lofty Spaces started off hopeful and remained that way late into the evening.
As it became clear that Republicans had gained control of the U.S. Senate, Texas State Senator Royce West of District 23 in Dallas predicted Kamala Harris would win after the Cruz victory was announced. Kardal Coleman, chair of the Dallas County Democrats, was also focused on state and local races, but there were not many victories for state democrats.
“My hope is we continue the organizing efforts that we have all year round because from here, we can only continue to do that work to make sure that we turn this state blue,” said Dallas County Democratic Vice Chair Jasmin Flores.
While Trump won Wednesday morning, neither party views the end of this election as the end of their work.
In her concession speech at Howard University on Wednesday, Harris urged the crowd to look forward.
“But hear me when I say…the light of America’s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting,” she said.
West, on Tuesday night, told the crowd at TK’s that this election was not the end of the conservative effort.
“Enjoy tonight, enjoy tomorrow, but by Thursday, Friday, sharpen your swords up again because we’ll need you back on the battlefield,” West said.
Jeff Engel, SMU David Gergen Director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University, said voters should expect a second Trump presidency to be tumultuous.
“I think they should be expecting more uncertainty and more change, and I might even go so far as to say chaos, and that’s not a criticism of President-elect Trump. That’s exactly what he has promised,” he said.
