In an increasingly polarized nation, U.S. presidential elections are routinely decided by a swath of key battleground states. Outcomes of swing states — which could be won by either the Republican or Democrat presidential candidate — are usually determined by slim margins, leading candidates to place a heavy emphasis on winning voters from these states.

In the 2024 presidential race, former President Donald Trump won all seven swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — which led to his victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. With a little more than half of the popular vote, Trump gained 312 electoral votes, exceeding the 270 needed to win.

The Daily spoke to students from each of the seven swing states pre- and post-election. They shared shared their optimism, fears and frustrations regarding their states as they geared up to the election and after the race was called.

Sofia Irlando ’27, who is from Atlanta, Georgia, said that living in a swing state “feels like there’s so much more weighing on each individual vote.”

Before the election

Maya Walker ’28, a Pennsylvania resident, said voting for Harris couldn’t have been a more obvious choice. 

“Harris not only represents my identity, but she also represents what I stand for,” said Walker, who identifies as Black, white and Chinese. “We either have a politician or we have someone who’s trying to ruin democracy.”

Walker said it was very common for people to intensely discus the election in her hometown of Ardmore, Pennsylvania, noting that such discussions were less common in California.

Although Walker’s hometown is mostly liberal, she has family members who voted for Trump. She did not discuss the election with them, she said.

“I think anyone who’s voting for Trump right now is [at] a point of no return,” Walker said.

Gabrielle Rosado ’28, who is from Henderson, Nevada, said she also avoids discussing politics with her extended family — which is comprised of Trump supporters.

“It’s just difficult talking to people who won’t educate themselves — who won’t do a few Google [searches]” Rosado said. “They’re the kind of supporters that [have a] blind faith thing.”

Rosado considered unfollowing her pro-Trump cousins on social media because she was tired of seeing their politicized content on her feed. 

For students from swing states, obtaining absentee ballots was especially important this year. Eliza Siebers ’26 ordered her absentee ballot at the start of the school year, motivated by strong civic engagement campaigns in her Madison, Wisconsin community. In contrast to her hometown, Siebers said, Stanford feels like “much more of an apolitical bubble.”

Yet many swing state voters reported struggles in the process of requesting and receiving ballots. 

Prior to the election, Harris-backing students from swing states expressed cautious optimism for a Democratic victory. Before the polls closed on Election Day, Irlando predicted that Georgia would swing blue because of a rapid mobilization and shift in “vibe” after Harris became the Democratic nominee. Rosado also strongly predicted that Nevada would vote blue. Both Siebers and Walker said they were hopeful about a Harris victory. 

Hudson Hall ’28, who is from Charlotte, North Carolina, was not on board with either of the major parties in this election. Hall cast his vote for the Green Party’s Jill Stein, who has been running continuously since 2002.

Stein often garners a few hundred-thousand votes per election. Hall said he hoped Harris would win the election, but did not vote for her because of her lack of action for transgender rights and Palestinians in the Israel-Gaza war. 

“I dislike [Trump] enough that I certainly don’t want to see him elected. But I can’t also, in good faith, vote for someone supporting an active genocide,” Hall said. “I’m not going to vote for her when there’s someone who more accurately represents me, especially when we speak with our vote.”

Though Hall acknowledged there is a greater risk of voting third party in a swing state, he said that Harris’s loss would be the Democrats’ fault for not appealing to more left-leaning populations.  

“You can’t just run on ‘we don’t like the other guy,’” Hall said. “You need to have actual policies [because that] will be heard even more, especially in a swing state.” 

Jason Hu ’26, from Saline, Michigan, expressed a similar sentiment. Hu, who did not reveal his political affiliations, doesn’t place as much importance on the 2024 election as others do. 

“At some point the messaging of ‘this is the most important election’ isn’t going to work anymore,” Hu said. 

Hu said he believes that his vote matters more for local elections than the presidential race, as it is a larger proportion of the total votes. He noted he was more interested in seeing how the local races turned out.

After the election

“I’m an emotional wreck,” Walker said once most of the votes were in, which pointed to a Trump victory. 

Walker stayed up until 1 a.m. on election night, watching the results at Ujamaa — the Black ethnic-themed dorm on campus — with dozens of others. At 11:24 p.m., the Associated Press (AP) called Pennsylvania for Trump. A few hours later, AP announced that Trump would be the next U.S. president.

“I knew that when we saw Pennsylvania go [red], we were pretty much in the land of no return,” Walker said. At the time, she said, the news was slowly sinking in but didn’t feel real.

Walker said that Pennsylvania had let her down.

“I’m honestly angry and frustrated that so many Americans would be willing to vote for a man who represents homophonic, racist, sexist ideals and who’s literally a felon,” she said.

The atmosphere at Ujamaa became more tense as election night progressed. Walker said that while some people were silent or doing homework, others began to yell at the television.

Rosado was also watching the election results at Ujamaa. When she returned to her dorm, she heard screaming from the lounge when the results were called. 

“It’s difficult to see that there [are] so many people that wouldn’t want someone like me to have rights,” she said. 

After Election Day, Rosado unfollowed her pro-Trump cousins and anyone else in support of Trump on her Instagram.

“I can’t deal right now. I really can’t,” Rosado said. 

Yameen Sekandari ‘28, who is from Glendale, Arizona, found out Trump had won when he heard a scream from a nearby room. Sekandari said he is most concerned about the future of his friends with parents who are undocumented immigrants.

Despite turning red, Sekandari predicts that Arizona will swing back to the Democrats in the next election after Arizonans become tired of Trump’s policies. Overall, Sekandari said the election made him more informed about politics. 

“I’m invested now,” Sekandari said. “Last time, when Trump was in office, I didn’t really know much about his policies. But now that he’s our president I just want to learn more about policy and the influence a president has and just seeing how it plays out.”

Walker now feels reinvigorated to take action, educate herself on politics and continue pursuing her goal of conducting social-racial justice work after college.

The election “makes me want to channel all my anger into my work,” Walker said.

Irlando had gone to bed on election night feeling less optimistic about Georgia, but remained hopeful for a Harris victory. She woke up the next morning to a friend’s text saying Trump won Pennsylvania.

Irlando quickly checked the electoral map and saw that Wisconsin and Georgia had also been called for Trump. She knew then that Harris had lost the election.

The results were especially painful for Irlando because Georgia only became a swing state in recent elections.

“There’s also fear and all of that, but I don’t think that has risen yet because the shock is so strong,” Irlando said.

“For such a brief amount of time, we felt like such a strong swing state,” she said. “[There’s] this feeling of going backwards and being back where we used to be.”

Hall said he thought a Trump victory was to be expected, but called the margin of victory “surprising.”

“I think his election was strictly reactionary,” he said. “So I think you’re gonna see a bunch of promised change but nothing really happening, or at least nothing that can easily be controlled.” 

North Carolina went red in the presidential race, though the state elected Democrat Josh Stein as governor. Hall predicted that the governor will veto any attempts at banning abortion. 

Siebers was disappointed in Wisconsin. Even her liberal neighborhood leaned farther right this year, she said. But she was excited to see that Democrat Tammy Baldwin won a Senate seat. 

“A lot of progressive and more left-leaning policies that I feel like are going to make people’s lives better are winning at more local levels,” she said.

Siebers noted however, that there is “an interesting disconnect between people appreciating and asking for more social services that are going to benefit their lives but not voting for people who are going to put those into place.”

Hu declined to comment post-election. 

Walker said those disappointed by the outcome of the presidential race should not give up.

“While it might seem like it’s over, it’s just beginning,” she said. “There’s still so much potential. We can’t give up quite yet…The people before us didn’t have the privilege to give up and so we don’t either.”