By Cade Acker, Staff Writer
A recent national poll found that about 1 in 5 voters regret backing Trump in the 2024 election. A recent poll conducted by The Wheaton Record found that nearly a quarter of Wheaton students regret their vote in the 2024 presidential election.
The poll was sent out Thursday, April 9, to Wheaton College students and received 97 responses. The campus poll focused on gauging how students are feeling about the upcoming election and what they want to see from political parties before they cast their vote.
For the poll, The Record asked students about their affiliation, their presidential vote in 2024 and who they plan to vote for in the fall midterm elections.
Just under half (46%) of students plan to vote for Republican candidates, 34% for Democrats and 12% for independents. The remaining 8% are either undecided or planning on not voting.
Nearly 25% of students said they “regret their vote” when asked. Among this group, 43% were affiliated or registered as independents, 28% identified as Democrats and 29% affiliated or registered Republicans.
One student said that, even though they are very unhappy with the current administration, there was no other realistic option for them. There was simply no way of knowing what was going to happen, and the other candidate was even more unrealistic.
“I regret my vote because I’m not happy with Trump,” they said. “But honestly, if I could go back in a time machine, I don’t know if I’d vote for Kamala Harris, either.”
Amy Black, a professor of political science, teaches a Campaigns and Elections course at Wheaton College. She notes dissatisfaction amongst voters.
“National surveys show that Americans have been dissatisfied with presidential candidates for several cycles in a row,” she said. “2028 will be a chance for both parties to make a fresh start. I expect that whichever party is most successful at doing that will win the presidency.”
Lizzy Lawson, a junior majoring in business, wishes third parties were more established. While she appreciates the Democratic Party, she laments that the candidates are not living up to her expectations.
“I didn’t or wouldn’t have voted Democrat then because Vice President Harris is not great,” she said. “The party — great, but she was just not the candidate to have, in my opinion.”
Naomi Eckdahl, a senior international relations major, was happy with the independent candidate she voted for because she feels as though she cannot sign onto the Democratic Party as it is today. She hopes the political landscape of the United States could allow room for a third party.
“I am still happy I supported an independent, and happy I went independent for the most part, except for the current situation,” Eckdahl said. “But I am not a Democrat, and I will not become a Democrat or join the party because I think we need to have more people voting independently.”
One poll set out before the 2024 election showed that 60% of voters were dissatisfied with both presidential candidates. One student gave voice to this sense of being in a political no-man’s-land, saying:
“I think both political parties are becoming far too extreme, and I’d like to see more moderate and competent candidates,” the student said. “Our country needs two healthy parties, and I feel like the 2024 election forced me to choose between two candidates whom I deeply disagreed with.”
A notable number of people plan to switch their vote to a different party from 2024 to those predicted in 2026. Of the 46% of students who voted for Trump in 2024, 78.89% plan to remain with Republicans in 2026, while 13.64% now favor Democrats, and 3.03% may switch to third-party candidates. About 68% of Harris voters plan on staying with Democrats, while 18.18% are looking for third-party candidates. Among 2024 Independent voters, 65.12% are switching to the Democrats, and 22.22% are staying third-party.
Eckdahl is among those third-party voters potentially switching over to the Democrats. Even though she does not expect to become a lifelong Democrat, she wants to see the current political landscape have some change while she watches and hopes for a third-party to emerge as a realistic option for more substantive positive change.
“I will begin shifting my votes more aggressively in that direction because of some of the policies that have come out of this current administration,” she said. “I believe that we as Christians need to be proactive, and we have a civic duty to respond.”
When asked what students wanted to see out of candidates and parties before the midterms, the answer was very clear: better communication and clear plans for the future. Tobias Link, a sophomore political science and economics double major, is one example. While he is very happy with his state representative, he isn’t convinced about the rest of the ballot.
“I want candidates and parties to appear more moderate and willing to work across parties to get stuff done,” he said. “But I’m 100% voting for U.S. Rep. Fitzpatrick again.”
Black weighed in to provide an alternative potential perspective for this upcoming election: not voting. While admitting that it might sound strange to hear an American politics professor say that it’s “perfectly appropriate to skip races on the ballot,” she emphasizes the importance of following one’s conscience in the ballot box.
“I encourage people to only vote for candidates they can positively affirm,” Black said. “If you cannot before God affirm a choice as someone you believe would serve well in a given office, skip voting in that race and vote in other races on the ballot.”
