LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa.— For many college students across the Lehigh Valley, Tuesday will be the first time they cast a ballot in a presidential election — the results of which may determine how the rest of their early adulthood plays out.
“Many of us within the next four years will be finding our first home, settling down, wanting to start families,” said Gianna Torgersen, 20, a junior nursing student at DeSales University.
The policies that impact these choices could look very different depending on who wins the Nov. 5 election — Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris or Republican former President Donald Trump.
For some students, the stakes couldn’t feel higher.
“It’s been very stressful,” said Jack Maloney, 22, a senior government, law and economics student at Lafayette College.
“I’ve had a lot of anxiety about the election, but it’s been paired with action and doing everything I can.”Skylyn Ellison
“I’ve had a lot of anxiety about the election, but it’s been paired with action and doing everything I can,” added Skylyn Ellison, 19, a sophomore political science student at Muhlenberg College.
Student leaders across local campuses said they can feel the polarization of American politics in public discourse, and whether they feel comfortable talking about their views depends on what school they attend and which side of the aisle they fall on.
Nationally, most people of traditional college ages lean left politically, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center. And that trend is anecdotally reflected at some Lehigh Valley colleges, though not all. But being in the majority doesn’t automatically mean a student is willing to publicly share their political opinions — the subject can still be touchy.
“I think people want to avoid upsetting anybody,” said Maloney, president of Lafayette’s College Democrats.
A decision to make
As students have been mulling over Tuesday’s election, they said some issues are top of mind: the economy, immigration and abortion among them. These are the priorities they said guided their decision to support either Harris or Trump, along with their assessment of each candidates’ fitness and vision.
Jaza Khan, 20, a junior political science student at DeSales, said she’s supporting Harris because the vice president’s campaign best aligns with her own values and beliefs, and Trump hasn’t made his policies clear.
But that doesn’t mean she’s without critiques of Harris.
Khan, president of DeSales Students for Progress, said she considered voting for a third-party candidate because of Harris’ position on the conflict in Gaza, which international experts have called a genocide.
Though Harris has said she supports a cease-fire, Khan isn’t totally convinced on her intentions and doesn’t think the candidate has been clear enough on how she would get a cease-fire done.
“I would rather have her in office than Donald Trump,” Khan said of her final decision, noting a third-party candidate won’t have enough support to win.
“I would rather have her in office than Donald Trump."Jaza Khan, president of the Desales Students for Progress
Ellison, president of the College Democrats at Muhlenberg, said she supports Harris because the vice president “cares about real people” while Trump is “acting in his own self-interest.”
Though she identifies as more progressive than Harris, Ellison appreciates how Harris has reached “across the aisle” in her campaign, which has received support from notable Republicans, like former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.
“I think that’s the most important step forward in our climate with the amount of polarization that’s happening in the world right now,” Ellison said.
Meanwhile, Maloney blames Trump for creating such political division in the first place.
“His campaign of grievance and division that he’s been running is just not what the country needs and is just totally self-serving,” Maloney said.
Kiki Billis, 19, a sophomore mechanical engineering student at Lehigh University, said she supports Trump, but that doesn’t mean she thinks he’s the “best guy.” Billis noted Trump’s 34 convictions for falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to an adult film star.
Still, Trump has policies that more so align with her ideals than Harris, whose campaign relies on “surface level narratives,” Billis said.
Harris contradicts herself when she speaks and is “hypocritical,” Billis added. Harris also attempts to appeal to young voters through endorsements from celebrities, like singer Taylor Swift, Billis said.
“She’s kind of using people like that [who] a lot of younger people look up to to sway votes without them thinking,” said Billis, vice president of Lehigh’s College Republicans.
However, Julie Wright, 20, a junior community and global health student at Lehigh, attributes Harris’ appeal to her communication style, which Wright calls “succinct” and “passionate.” Comparatively, Trump is “all over the place,” she said.
“That doesn’t feel like something I want representing the United States,” said Wright, president of both Lehigh’s and Pennsylvania’s College Democrats. Wright already cast her ballot for Harris.
Economy and immigration
Students from various Lehigh Valley schools and political backgrounds said the economy is a top issue for them.
That’s reflected in state and national polls of the general electorate, too.
Junior Gianna Torgersen, a member of DeSales’ student government and a Catholic student leader on campus, said she wants to see lower overall costs. It’s expensive to support herself with high prices, let alone a future family, she said.
“Things like housing, food, clothing, health care and insurance prices have risen extremely,” said Torgersen, who already cast her vote for Trump. “That makes it extremely challenging for young people like us to even want to save or invest or plan for our futures.”
"Things like housing, food, clothing, health care and insurance prices have risen extremely."Gianna Torgersen, a junior nursing student and DeSales University and a member of student government
Billis also favors Trump on the economy.
“In the next four years, I’m going to be out of college,” she said. “And so, I’m trying to think ahead and think about inflation control and economic incentives, like gas prices, grocery prices and all these things.”
Under Trump, inflation was lower than during President Joseph Biden’s administration. In the first 45 months of Biden’s presidency, inflation was up 20.1%, according to reporting from Forbes. During the same period of time during Trump’s presidency, inflation was only up 7.1%.
Torgersen also said she thinks Trump’s business background will help him create more jobs, which are essential for new graduates.
But Maloney, a Democrat, thinks Trump can’t deliver on promises of increased manufacturing jobs.
“His policy was all bluster,” Maloney said.
Maloney believes Harris would be better on job creation, continuing the “resounding success” of Biden.
Biden has added 729,000 manufacturing jobs since the start of his presidency, according to reporting on federal jobs numbers from CBS. Trump lost a net total of 178,000 manufacturing jobs during his presidency; but before the economic crash of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Trump had added 414,000 jobs, according to reporting from CNN.
Dimitri Chernozhukov, 22, a senior government, law and economics student at Lafayette College, supports Trump on job creation and thinks his harder stance on immigration could help Americans economically, too.
Chernozhukov, president of Lafayette’s College Republicans, said immigrants contribute to “more and more competition for these lower end service industry jobs, where it does end up being harmful.”
Economists say immigration can affect workers with low levels of education, according to reporting from CNBC.
Some experts say immigration leads to reduced wages for these Americans until they find higher paying jobs elsewhere. However, there’s debate on this theory, according to the same report.
Aidan LaTourette, 19, a sophomore finance and mechanical engineering student at Lehigh, said his mother’s work experience demonstrates Chernozhukov’s point.
LaTourette’s mother works in the hospitality and service industry at a resort, where “illegal immigrants” from South American countries are joining staff and only able to speak Spanish, creating communication challenges, he said.
“They’re taking a lot of jobs,” said LaTourette, a member of the College Republicans. “I definitely feel like the Trump administration targets that more.”
LaTourette already voted for Trump via an absentee ballot.
Abortion
Another top issue for voters — mostly liberal ones — is abortion.
Left-leaning Lehigh Valley students said they want Roe v. Wade reinstated after the decision was reversed by the Supreme Court in 2022, nixing the constitutional right to an abortion that had existed since 1973.
“As a young woman, I am very pro-choice and very against the idea of any government — be it federal or state — being involved in what I do with my body,” Ellison said. “I am terrified of a federal abortion ban.”
Trump has claimed the overturning of Roe v. Wade as a victory, and said the issue of abortion access is now up to the states. Trump said in an October post on X, formerly Twitter, that he will veto a national abortion ban; this statement came after previously declining to comment on the matter.
“I don’t think he’s adamantly against that enough,” Maloney said, adding that Trump is “beholden” to “anti-abortion extremists.”
Wright said she supports Harris because the Democratic candidate is better than Trump at talking about women's health issues, such as abortion and contraceptives, which Wright fears could both be banned nationally under a Trump administration.
It’s important to have a president who shares accurate information about women’s health, she added.
Wright also highlighted Harris’ debate performance in which she spoke about how state abortion bans have led to precarious medical situations for patients, such as in cases of miscarriages, because doctors are unsure if and when they can legally provide care.
“It’s so important that we have someone who can speak to the facts and understand what these policies look like in practice regardless of a superficial or surface-level ideology,” Wright said.
LaTourette said he thinks abortion is a mobilizing issue for many college students; he again supports Trump on the topic. LaTourette’s Christian faith informs his take on this issue, he added.
“While I don’t completely disagree with it, I like the way that it’s set up now where it's [the responsibility of] the states,” he said.
LaTourette agrees with abortion for cases of rape, incest or health of the mother, he said.
Torgersen, who was adopted from China, said she is “pro-life” because she believes in “the value of every single life.”
“I think [being] pro-life is definitely not the most favored concept among people,” she added.
Torgersen said a pro-life stance shouldn’t only be reserved for opposing abortion, but also providing health care and social support to families.
Energy on campus
Whether Lehigh Valley students share their political takes on abortion, the economy or other politically charged issues can depend largely on campus culture, they said.
Maloney and Chernozhukov said Lafayette students fear speaking about their political views because of national polarization; these kinds of conversations are reserved for close friends.
The two, who are friends themselves, agreed Lafayette’s campus generally leans more left politically; but that mostly manifests through single-issue student groups, like environmentalism and reproductive rights organizations. Chernozhukov also noted a new pro-life student group recently formed.
At Muhlenberg — where there’s no College Republicans group — Ellison said students are also liberal, but more vocal about politics.
There was a renewed excitement around the election when Biden dropped out of the race in July, and most students are enthusiastic about voting for Harris, she said.
However, there is a small but noticeable group of Muhlenberg students who have taken issue with Harris’ stance on the conflict in Gaza. Students say they’re planning either not to vote, or to write-in Green Party candidate Jill Stein as a form of protest.
“I am a little concerned about it, but I like to think people say that to make themselves feel better, and then they’ll show up at the polls on November 5th,” Ellison said.
At Lehigh, students said the campus is politically engaged and more openly pro-Democrat. It can be hard to be part of the conservative minority, Republican students said.
“My whole freshman year I felt silenced,” LaTourette said. “I never really said anything about my political views. I kept quiet. People would say stuff, and I would feel like I’d just have to pretend to agree.”
“My whole freshman year I felt silenced."Aidan LaTourette, member of Lehigh University's College Republicans
But LaTourette said he’s recently gained the confidence to be more open about his views and has learned some friends hold the same conservative beliefs, too.
Billis said it’s hard to have a political opinion “that you get so much hate for.”
“People automatically assume that I’m a horrible person because of the way I feel about certain policies,” she said.
Meanwhile at DeSales, Torgersen and Khan said the student body is not largely passionate or vocal about politics.
The conservative student group is inactive, and Khan’s progressive group has a small number of members.
Still, Khan said the Catholic campus leans more conservative because of religious beliefs, but Torgersen added everyone is generally welcoming.
Moving forward, Torgersen hopes the polarized country can take some inspiration from DeSales.
“I wish there was more of a bridge between both sides,” she said. “There’s a lot of different ways we can be listening and learning from each other.”
