By Grayson Boyd

It seems as if the last four years have been building up to November 3, 2020. One of the most controversial presidents of all time, Donald J. Trump (R), is up for reelection. His four years in office have seen much conflict, and it all seems to all be building up to the final climax of election day. Similar to the 2016 election, many major polls are currently showing that Trump is slightly behind, and former Vice President Joe Biden (D) may come out as the winner. 

Virginia has recently turned from a dark red” to a “dark blue state, meaning that what used to be a reliably Republican state has shifted to generally voting for Democrats, especially at the state and national levels. In an Upper School presidential poll conducted by The Match, Biden defeated Trump by almost twenty percentage points. 47 percent of the Upper School (271 students out of a total 575) participated in the poll, which was conducted Oct. 5-7. The final results were 55 percent to Biden and 36 percent to Trump, with the remaining 9 percent falling into the “Other/Neither” category. Since then, there have been other developments in the race, including Trump getting hospitalized with Covid-19, and both a town hall for each candidate on October 15 and a second presidential debate on October 22.

Results of a Match presidential poll taken of the 9th-12th grades on October 5-7.

The 2020 presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party, Jo Jorgenson, speaks on her campaign trail. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via flickr.

One person who chose “Other/Neither” in the poll was registered voter Johnny Galanides (‘21). His preferred candidate for the upcoming election is the Libertarian Party candidate Jo Jorgenson. Galanides believes Jorgenson is the best candidate because, “the modern Republican Party is not libertarian at all, despite its many attempts to attempts to act like it is, and as a libertarian I agree with many of Jo Jorgenson’s views.” Galanides is also passionate about shifting the political climate away from the two-party system. He believes that, “the two-party system is currently at fault for the decided state of our politics, in my opinion, a system constantly in the middle of a tug of war for power between two parties will never see great peace and prosperity. To this extent, I think people voting for candidates that actually share views with rather than one of the two big parties would solve many problems in our political system.” A percentage of people don’t have a liking for either candidate and are forced to have to choose between the candidate they dislike the least, because they don’t want to waste their vote on a third-party candidate.

An August poll of Americans by Forbes magazine found that fifty-six percent of Biden voters planned to vote for him simply because he is “not Trump.” A student who agrees with this sentiment is registered voter Miriam Nimaga (‘21), who stated, “anyone but Trump,” about her preference for  Biden. This same sentiment can also be true for some Trump voters, as some voters don’t see Biden as mentally fit for office. Biden’s mental fitness has been raised as an issue during the campaign. 

Donald Trump. Photo credit: The White House.

I asked some some Trump voters in the Upper School on why they chose Trump over Biden for the poll, and some stated they liked how the economy “was booming like never before,” before the COVID-19 pandemic, and they did not agree with many of Biden’s policies. Most of these students refused to be named, as they feared peers’ opinions of them would change, or they thought they would “receive hate” from peers that have very strong opinions in their dislike of Trump.

Thomas Hutchins (’21), a senior who is not yet old enough to vote in the actual election, was willing to explain his choice to vote for Trump in the poll. Hutchins stated, “I very hesitantly chose Donald Trump, given that, on the issues, he comes closer to my Libertarian ideology, doing things like lowering US military presence in the Middle East and putting a focus on American issues.” Hutchins made very clear the reason he was hesitant is that he “vehemently disagree with much of [Trump’s] rhetoric and his behavior,” which echoes the majority of the Trump voters interviewed who did not want their names associated with this article. 

Democrat Joe Biden. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore.

It was easier to get Biden voters to explain their reasoning for voting down on record. Registered voter Tucker Felts (‘21) was quick to say he was not worried about putting his name down when he stated his reason for supporting Biden: “While he was not my preferred Democratic candidate, he is more willing to implement progressive policies compared to Trump.” 

While national polling generally reflects a small lead for Biden, less than The Match’s poll numbers, polling can be unreliable, as was seen in 2016. With such a close election, it may be days or weeks after Nov. 3 that we know the actual results of the election. 

CHECK OUT The Match’s October 2016 presidential poll and coverage of that election. 

Featured image credit: pencitycurrent.com.