Roughly a dozen students around the Colorado College campus said they felt positive about Tuesday’s national election results.
Colorado College is home to students from all over the country, some of whom said they voted in their home state. During a series of interviews while students were on break or headed to class the morning after Election Day, the reasoning for why they didn’t vote in Colorado was often because they felt more educated about the place where they grew up.
Election analysts have called the Nov. 3 midterm results a “blue tsunami,” as reported in various national news outlets, including NBC and the New York Times.
The Democratic Party not only won U.S. Senate races in key battleground states such as Michigan and Georgia, but flipped solidly conservative states like South Carolina and Texas. They also hold at least a 16-seat majority (as of Nov. 4) in the U.S. House, which means overwhelming Democratic control of the Legislative branch.
One student from Texas, Oliver Wells ‘28, said he was “overjoyed” with the results. He believes the demographic shift throughout the state and a large student-voter turnout were what led to a Democratic victory in both the Senate and state government.
“I’m very proud to be a Texan,” Wells said.
For some, the results provided relief from the general election in 2024.
One student, whom The Catalyst is not naming for privacy reasons, said the outcome had led him to get “super fucked up” on election night two years ago.
Another student, Fiona Henry ‘28, said a girl came to class crying the Wednesday after the 2024 presidential election.
Henry, a Colorado resident (not the author of this story), was happy with the national election results, as well as local measures. One included Colorado’s Front Range “CoCo” Train. Henry said he believed it would be helpful for students who don’t have cars on campus.
Colorado resident Landyn Scott ‘30 felt “lighter” this morning.
“We can be more proactive with our actions, because it’s more likely to have an impact,” she said, adding that election results have given her “hope.”
Voting in Denver, Scott wanted to vote near home because her parents are teachers and she wanted a say on various school district-focused ballot measures.
Multiple students from California also decided to vote with their home address.
This included Joe Garcia ‘28 and Drew Galvin ‘29. Galvin decided in particular because of California’s Proposition 40, the one-time billionaire wealth tax. Outside of that, however, he believes his vote didn’t matter as much.
Galvin was pleasantly surprised, particularly because he was worried about potential efforts to contest the election results from the current presidential administration.
Ben Ekhaus ‘29, also from California, decided to vote in Colorado Springs. His reasoning was that he felt he had a lot more influence on the results of the election in Colorado than California.
When asked why he decided to vote in Colorado, Ekhaus said, “here is a little more seesaw,” referring to the tight, still-undecided-as-of-Wednesday congressional race between Republican Jeff Crank and Democrat Jessica Killen. Ekhaus is hoping for a Killen victory, which would be the first democratic win in the district’s history.
Despite the election results, neither Ekhaus nor Galvin believes their lives at CC will change drastically with the election outcome.
Another student who decided to stay local, Aidan Helgeson ‘27, also decided to vote in California, primarily wanting to focus on local congressional offices. He was surprised by the Democratic landslide victory that went well beyond news outlets’ predictions.
“It was really impressive the amount of people that came out and voted,” he said.