By: Maximo Legaspi 🇵🇭
Students exiting Yahentamitsi Dining Hall pass by the pop-up booth in the Heritage Community Courtyard on the morning of Sept 26. (Anika Stikeleather)
The Democratic Party, which was left reeling after major losses in both the presidential election as well as the House and Senate races, is now facing a serious question of identity as its voter base becomes increasingly displeased with their policies.
A poll from La Voz Latina showed that a majority of respondents maintained serious issues with the party. In the survey, 42% of the respondents felt that neither candidate in the election represented their views accurately, with another 17% answered similarly.
Image via La Voz Latina poll (Maximo Legaspi)
Guadalupe Quevedo, a graduate student at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, feels that Vice President Kamala Harris pushed away many voters when she told potential migrants to the U.S. not to come during a speech in Guatemala in 2021.
“I think it made it really hard for a lot of Hispanic people to believe that the Democratic Party has their best interests in mind,” Quevedo said.
Conversely, Owen Kramer, a junior government and politics major, felt that Harris’ political experience would have made her a good president.
“She had a good message about hope and about trying to move the nation forward,” said Kramer.
Even with that, he felt that a lack of a clear policy message, along with Harris’ ethnic background and status as a woman hurt her campaign with many people.
“She’s a Black woman, and the U.S., historically, has not been great about Black leaders and not great about female leaders,” Kramer said.
A majority of the 38 respondents, 52% of whom identified as white and 63% as Democrats, cited opposition to Trump and Republican policies and a push to preserve individual rights for minority groups as reasons for voting.
For Quevedo, the “preservation of democracy” was the main factor in her voting decision.
“We’ve seen Donald Trump in the White House, we saw how dangerous that was…I don’t think the Republican candidate aligned with anything I stand for,” Quevedo said.
Image via La Voz Latina poll (Maximo Legaspi)
Democrats have been losing support over the past four years, as President-elect Donald Trump won the popular vote with almost 75 million votes compared to Vice President Harris, who achieved roughly 72 million.
It was the first time in two decades that a Republican presidential candidate has won the popular vote.
Important battleground states that went Democrat in the last election, including Arizona,
Pennsylvania and Georgia flipped red, clinching the electoral college in Trump’s favor.
President Joe Biden’s approval ratings have been in the negative since Sept. 2021. Currently sitting at 41%, his ratings have been lower than the past four incumbent presidents during an election year, according to a Gallup poll.
Exit polls collected by The Washington Post from the 2024 election show an increase in support for Trump, especially with Hispanic and Latino voters.
The polls showed that 46% of Hispanic and Latino voters across the nation cast their ballots for Trump, a 14-point increase from 32% in 2020. Additional polls found that support for the Democratic Party decreased overall for other demographics.
On stickers placed on the inside of the booth's left door, students wrote handwritten notes outlining their reasons for voting. (Anika Stikeleather)
Kramer thinks that the Democrats have strayed from “focusing on helping everyday people,” costing them support in many communities.
“(The) Democrats have gotten on the defensive of defending these institutions that are not working for people,” Kramer said, “and so the Republicans under Trump have a very clean message of…‘it was better under us.’”
Despite President-elect Donald Trump’s history of derogatory comments and hostile policies towards Latino communities, Quevedo thinks that his economic stances make it easier for people to vote for him.
“I think it's easier for (Latino voters) to go with someone who’s like, ‘yeah, I don’t like you, but you’ll have more money under me,’” said Quevedo.
Additionally, Quevedo sees the Republicans as having a more cohesive image and identity, while, to her, the Democrats are left trying to appeal to everyone else.
“They’re trying to please too many people at once,” Quevedo said, “and I think that’s where they’re kind of making a mistake…you can’t please everyone.”
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