People have a lot of different thoughts and opinions about the upcoming election, but as a community, we never think to ask: How do students view the candidates? The West Press went around Lakota West High School interviewing a large variety of students, ranging from football players to foreign exchange students. During our interviews, we learned about what the different opinions are from a variety of cliques around the school. Younger people tend to consume information about the presidential election through social media, which has often been accused of being inaccurate. Some students did not feel strongly about the candidates or the election in itself, while others were extremely educated and more than happy to share their thoughts about the election. 

We asked Naya Zoeller, a sophomore at West, who she would vote for.

 “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz because they both have been pretty adamant about getting back reproductive rights for women, and they’re both supportive of the LGBTQ+ community. I think everybody deserves to be their true authentic selves without embarrassment”

Several students who said they would vote for Trump brought up the fact that he was a businessman, and would be able to handle the economy due to the fact that he has more experience due to his previous presidency.

“I would vote for Trump because he is a businessman, and he knows how to financially stabilize the economy…his previous experience in presidency just makes it easier to trust him,” Lakota West sophomore Gurpavit Multani said.

“I feel like he did really good with economics and I feel like inflation is really high right now and prices are really high. And gas prices have gone up SO much” Said Sophia Barela, a sophomore here at Lakota West.

 “I think Trump during his time in office made the economics, and like, his economic help was better…there has been more inflation in these past few years,” said sophomore Isabela Depoz.

Even some students who lean more towards Kamala Harris have agreed that Trump did well with the economy during his first presidency.

“[Trump] does have really good economic policies and did good for the economy, then COVID hit,” said Sophomore Naya Zoeller. “I think it’s weird that he still takes credit for how well COVID, or how well things went with COVID with the economy, but then he literally wasn’t president” she added. 

Although some students seemed to be well educated on the presidential election, some students did not seem to be overly interested in being involved in learning about the election.

“Ummm [Trump is a] cool guy, I don’t know, I don’t really get into politics like that,” said sophomore Josh Tyson. 

“I don’t really know much, I would say I know 25% of what’s going on” said Gurpavit Multani. 

“I don’t know, I don’t pay that much attention,” said Caleb Bonk, a junior here at Lakota West. 

As we interviewed more students, we noticed a pattern of students who sided with the political party, not necessarily the candidate. Many other students also brought up the fact that they didn’t specifically favor one candidate, they just strongly disliked the other. 

“(there’s) Nothing specific, I am just a Republican, so I agree more with that party,” said Junior Caleb Bonk.

When students were asked about what specific policies about the chosen candidate stood out to them and the main reasons they believed the candidate was worthy of their vote, their answers on their views showed how many diverse perspectives people can have about the same people.

“[Harris is] enforcing gun control, and she cares about pro-choice. I think she has more of an understanding of perspectives rather than like…a man who only cares more about money, dictating if women should get an abortion or not” said Eva Colon, a junior here at Lakota West. “She’s a woman of congress and she cares about the people more, you can only benefit from Trump if you have money. She cares about low-income families, and minorities, while he doesn’t give a frick about minorities.”

Overall, it was very interesting to get to learn about what students think about the competing candidates. We had many people from different backgrounds share their ideas.