By Thúy Holder-Vinh, age 15
2024 is an election year for the United States. In November (and as early as September in states with early voting), crowds will flock to their designated polling places to cast their votes for the next president of the United States. On opposite sides of the race: former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris. The leading third-party candidate is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., representing the We The People party, but is polling low nationally.
So why should youth unable to vote, like you, the average WriCampian, care?
The candidates, especially Harris and Trump, have radically different views on the future of our country, a future all of us will have to inherit as our present. On one side, there’s Former President Trump, whose views reflect the infamous Project 2025, a blueprint for the next Republican president’s administration. Overseen by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 is vehemently against abortion rights, same-sex marriage, and immigration. While Trump has stated vaguely that he sees some of Project 2025’s plans as “abysmal,” he also wished them luck on anything they did. Even worse, at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025, a CNN review found, “including more than half of the people listed as authors, editors and contributors to ‘Mandate for Leadership,’ the project’s extensive manifesto for overhauling the executive branch.”
Meanwhile, Harris stands for nearly everything Trump is trying to tear down. She plans to protect abortion rights nationally, is calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, and supports environmental justice.
So no matter where you stand on politics, the outcome of this election will inevitably affect you. It decides the outcome of our country, and to a lesser extent, the rest of the world.
And, of course, there are campers who care about the election. The Yearly WriCampian collected data from campers about how campers would vote if given the chance.
Out of the even 100 (out of about 200) campers who responded to our survey, 91 say they would vote for Kamala Harris, two for a third party, four were undecided, two wouldn’t vote because they didn’t like either of the candidates, one wouldn’t vote for lack of caring, and none would vote for Former President Trump.
So what does this mean? It seems if WriCampia were in charge of voting for our next president, the results would be clear. But although Harris dominates the polls here at WriCampia, the race is much closer across the fifty states. As of Aug. 15, 2024, according to a poll tracker done by The New York Times tracking the national polling average, Harris holds 45% of the vote, Trump 44%, and Kennedy 5%.
To figure out why our numbers favored Harris so strongly and completely disregarded Trump, I interviewed campers about their political views. Let’s start with Harris. “I agree with her views, especially with her views on abortion, which is very important in the U.S. and all around the world. And access to abortion is healthcare” Amelia H., 14, says. Harris has also become known for her advertising. “Kamalanomenon,” camper Kate S., 15, says about what she associates with Harris. “I think she’s done a good job of resonating with the Gen Z audience,” Kate continued. “Leaning into the brat thing and the kamalanomenon thing,” because she’s more open to embracing people’s reactions to her and using that to boost her campaign.”
And it’s true–a big part of Harris’s campaign has been incorporating popular culture, using English singer-songwriter Charli XCX’s new album brat to promote herself after an endorsement from Charli XCX herself. “Kamalanomenon” is a play on “Femininomenon,” a song by the popular singer Chappell Roan. “She’s kind of the first to appeal to social media,” Sophie K., 16, says.
So, yeah, we know why people are voting for Harris. As Maxanne W-S., 15, put it, “this camp is a very liberal bubble.” But why aren’t people voting for Trump? What makes him so different, so that not a single camper in our survey would’ve voted for him?
“Because I think Trump is a threat to democracy, and he’s also a criminal,” camper Rohan T., 13 said, referencing when Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
A common theme among campers against Trump brings up how he has a history of lying. When asked what comes to mind when he thinks of Trump, Henry A., 16, said “His claims that he was on a crashing helicopter with Kamala’s Harris’s ex-boyfriend, and it was someone else he got mixed up with.” In a similar vein, Gabe H., 14, references when Trump claimed Harris switched races.
Aside from the lying, “Donald Trump is clearly a major jerkface,” Wilson R., 12, added.
I wasn’t able to find any of the campers who’d voted undecided, not voting, or third party. And to be fair, there weren’t a lot of those. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the leading third-party candidate, and he hasn’t been very popular. “I don’t think he has a shot at winning the election, he sort of had a chance when it was Biden but definitely not against Trump and Kamala,” said Tommy G., 16. “He’s sort of spineless.”
As for the undecided voters, some of those votes might come from campers with less knowledge on the election, Izzy A., 16, said. “I did think that it would be more undecided within younger people, but I guess it does make sense if they’re getting their info from their parents or the news.”
An article in The New York Times titled Undecided Voters React to Harris’s V.P. Pick, in which the Times interviewed undecided voters about their thoughts on Harris’s choice for Tim Walz as her vice presidential pick, suggests that people undecided may have doubts about Harris’s experience, or want someone they see as more moderate.
All in all, WriCampia is a very left-leaning camp, but only time will tell if November’s election will reflect this liberal slice of summer in the Berkshires.
