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The Dartmouth
December 21, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

2024 Election at Dartmouth: Majority of students express support for Harris

In a survey by The Dartmouth, students indicated the economy, climate change and abortion as their top issues in the 2024 presidential election.

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In the months leading up to the 2024 general election, campus-wide discussions on politics have been plentiful. The College and student organizations alike have hosted events with national political figures — from the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy’s 2024 Election Speaker Series, welcoming speakers like former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., to campus, to the Dartmouth Political Union’s debate between former senior counselor to former President Donald Trump Kellyanne Conway and political strategist Donna Brazile. Beyond organized discussions, students have also debated the election in conversations with friends and peers. From Tuesday, Oct. 29 to Sunday, Nov. 3, The Dartmouth surveyed the undergraduate student body about their views on the election, the current political climate and various policy issues.

Majority of students indicate support for Harris

Most students indicated plans to vote in today’s election. Sixty-seven percent and 4% were very or somewhat likely to vote, respectively, while 8% were either very or somewhat unlikely to vote. An additional 20% had already cast ballots and 1% were unsure. Of students who are registered and likely to vote, a majority of students, 74%, responded that they plan to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election. Twenty-one percent, meanwhile, expressed support for Trump, while 5% said they plan to vote for third-party or write-in candidates. 

Fifty-three percent of surveyed students plan to vote in New Hampshire, while 40% said they are voting by absentee ballot in their home state. Of students voting in the Granite State, 65% plan to vote for Democrat and former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig for governor, while 22% plan to cast ballots for former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. Eleven percent do not plan to vote in the gubernatorial election and 2% plan to vote for a third-party candidate.

For the 2nd Congressional District race, 69% of students registered in New Hampshire plan to vote for Democratic candidate Maggie Goodlander, while 18% plan to vote for Republican Lily Tang Williams. Thirteen percent do not plan to vote in the congressional election. 

Respondents express concern about polarization nationally and on campus

Respondents were asked how polarized they believe the American public is. Eighty-one percent said they thought the country was “very polarized,” while 17% thought the country was “somewhat polarized.” Only 2% indicated that they believed the country was “not polarized” or “somewhat united.” These views of the public may inform students’ lack of faith in the general health of American democracy.

A staggering 76% of students surveyed said they believed the country was heading on the “wrong track.” In comparison, only 8% of students responded that the country is moving in the right direction, while another 8% indicated that the country is going in neither direction or that they do not know.

Forty-seven percent of respondents said they view people who support different political parties “somewhat negatively” in comparison to themselves, and 11% said they viewed them “very negatively.” Twenty-nine percent of respondents said they held no opinion, while 9% and 4% stated that they held “somewhat positive” or “very positive” views, respectively. Despite this tension, however, 52% of students indicated that they “feel safe” discussing their political views at Dartmouth, and 33% said they “sometimes” feel safe doing so. Sixteen percent said they do not feel safe discussing their views on campus.

The majority of students do not believe both major-party candidates are fit to hold office

Ninety-three percent of students said they did not believe both Trump and Harris were fit to hold office. Only 7% of respondents believed both candidates to be fit for office, and roughly 1% said that they were unsure.

When asked to indicate which candidate(s) they believed to be unfit for office, a staggering 82% of respondents selected Trump and 30% selected Harris. Twenty-two percent, 20%, 16% and 15% said they do not believe third-party candidates Jill Stein, Cornel West, Chase Oliver and Claudia De la Cruz, respectively, to be fit for office. 

Surveyed students were slightly more liberal, with 54% of survey respondents self-identifying as Democrats and 20% identifying as Republican. Eighteen percent identified as independent and 8% identified as a part of either the Libertarian, Green or another party.

Students also expressed criticism of vice presidential candidates. Forty-seven percent of respondents expressed disapproval of Trump’s choice of Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, as his running mate, while 19% expressed approval and 34% remained neutral on the issue. To a lesser extent, 16% of respondents expressed disapproval of Harris’s choice of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, while 55% expressed approval and 28% remained neutral on the issue.

The most important policy issue to Dartmouth students is the economy

When asked to choose what they believed to be the most important issue in the upcoming election, 23% of respondents chose the economy. This was followed by 20% of students choosing climate change, 17% choosing abortion and 15% choosing foreign policy. Affirmative action, crime, education, gun rights, healthcare, immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, race and ethnicity, judicial appointments and voting rights and other issues were all chosen by 5% of respondents or less.  

Different hot-topic issues tended to attract students toward different candidates. Sixty-eight percent and 69% of respondents reported that their views on abortion and climate change, respectively, made them more likely to support the Democratic candidate, while 10% and 4% reported that their view of abortion or climate change, respectively, made them more likely to support the Republican candidate. 

Focus on affirmative action tended to slightly increase support for the Democratic presidential candidate. Twenty-nine percent of students said they were more likely to support the Democratic candidate based on the candidate’s position on affirmative action, while 19% said they were more likely to support the Republican candidate. Fifty percent of respondents reported that the issue was not important to them or did not impact their vote.

Meanwhile, focus on inflation and the economy tended to slightly increase support for the Republican candidate. Thirty percent of respondents said their views on inflation and the economy increased their support for the Republican candidate, compared to 28% who expressed increased support for the Democratic candidate. Thirty-five percent of students said these topics would have no impact on their vote.

Dartmouth student respondents tend to read the news

Fifty-seven percent of surveyed students reported consuming news daily, 28% a few times a week, 8% once a week and 6% less than once a week. Of those surveyed, 63% get their news through online newspapers, 29% through social media, 1% through physical newspapers, 1% through television and 5% through other media. An additional 2% do not follow current events. 

Eighty-four percent of respondents expressed that they watched the presidential debate on Sept. 10, and 54% watched the vice presidential debate on Oct. 1. Fifty-six percent said the presidential debate had no significant impact on their voting decisions. Meanwhile, 27% said it increased their support for Harris, while 5% stated it increased their support for Trump.

Methodology Notes:

From Tuesday, Oct. 29 to Sunday, Nov. 3, The Dartmouth fielded an online survey of Dartmouth students on their opinions about the 2024 election. The survey was sent out to 4,193 undergraduate students through their school email addresses. 197 responses were recorded, resulting in a 4.7% response rate. Using administrative data from the College’s Office of Institutional Research, responses were weighted by class year, gender and race/ethnicity. Weighting was done through iterative post-stratification (raking). Survey results have a margin of error ± 6.8 percentage points.