The 2024 presidential candidates spark strong opinions in the WHS student body as students are trying to distinguish which of them is most fit to be the President of the United States.
After only a few primaries, most political experts and voters reached the conclusion that the November election will include the same candidates as ran in 2020: former President Donald Trump on the Republican side, and current President Joseph Biden on the Democratic. Not everyone at WHS thinks this is the optimal outcome.
“I wouldn’t say they are the best choices in that it’s weird that this is what the presidency has come to,” said junior Claire Kakabeeke.
Donald Trump leads the Republican nomination race with 76.7% of likely Republican voters selecting him in national polls, leading some at WHS to express concern about his possible return to the White House.
“Trump’s style of governing, which involves fear-mongering, deceptiveness, partisanship and polarization, presents a grave threat to democracy in America,” senior Jonathan Lan said.
On the other hand, students have confidence in a presidential candidate with more conservative values.
“I’m looking forward to Trump or Nikki Haley winning,” junior Darius Brewster said. “Democrats have different proposals for laws, such as stricter gun laws.”
Others plan to vote for Biden due to the negative repercussions of having a conservative President.
“I will vote for Biden in November because of the greater danger that Trump poses to what is left of American democracy and the frightening idea that he will bring racism and antisemitism into the political mainstream with his white nationalist-adjacent rhetoric and policy ideas,” senior Finley Campbell said.
With Biden assumed to get the Democratic nomination, there is little to no competition on the liberal side, despite the fact that some feel he has made many missteps in his presidency.
“When he withdrew his troops from Afghanistan, in my opinion that was an extremely bad decision, coming from a military family,” freshman Logann Bates said. “It was rushed, poorly planned and executed, leaving a lot of U.S troops and translators behind with the Taliban controlling not only people from Afghanistan, but also some Americans.”
While Biden has been the only viable Democratic option, originally there was a field of eleven Republican candidates, which is now down to two. Nikki Haley is the other contender, the former U.S Ambassador to the United Nations and former Governor of South Carolina.
Bates believes that Nikki Haley is true to her word and, as she has experience with foreign policy, she would be a great fit to be president.
“She’s really good with the public, and she can explain to people her view and make good reasoning without saying she’s ‘gonna do this’ and she ‘doesn’t care about what you guys think’ as she’s trying to win the votes of the people,” Bates said. “Her experience as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations helps as well.”
For some who aren’t fans of Trump, however, Haley is not viewed as a true alternative.
“Nikki Haley is closely aligned with Donald Trump on most policy issues, despite the glaring differences in demeanor and rhetoric between the two,” senior Finley Campbell said. “She is less dangerous than Trump, but she seems unlikely to win the Republican nomination, so I don’t think about her all that much.”
Despite some students’ strong feelings about each candidate, others are simply not excited about the election as they feel that the candidates lack the qualities essential to being a strong president.
“The President is supposed to represent the ideal and perfect American, maybe not necessarily perfect but at least competent,” Kakabeeke said. “We shouldn’t be choosing between a guy who seems to not be able to walk and a guy who has a bunch of lawsuits against him.”