The presidential election is three weeks away, with Election Day on Nov. 5, and each candidate has worked hard in recent months to gain Americans’ votes.
The Republican Former President Donald Trump and current Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris are the front runners in the 2024 election.
“I would, as a political science professor, encourage people to look at what it is that the president can actually do, and those things the president can’t,” said Benjamin Clark, a senior lecturer of political science at GCSU.
Trump began his career working in real estate and business in New York with a loan from his father. He eventually took over his father’s company and renamed it “Trump Organization” in 1971. Building the company up, he started going into Manhattan property and spreading outside of New York, Las Vegas, India and Chicago. He built casinos, hotels and condominiums.
Trump worked his way into television and worked on the show “The Apprentice,” where he offered a management contract with his business to the winning contestant of the show. The award consisted of a $250,000 dollar contract to manage one of the hosts’ projects and become their apprentice for a year. Trump participated in 14 seasons and has tried multiple business ventures, such as starting Trump University. At one point, Trump even owned the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants.
Trump Univeristy is a company founded in 2005 where people can learn the ins and outs of real estate. It offered seminars online and transitioned to in-person classes later on. After being hit with multiple lawsuits, it ended in 2010.
In 2015, Trump announced his run for president, running on the slogan “Make America Great Again” in hopes of securing a seat in the White House. He ran against the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and won the 45th presidency. He remained president until 2020, when he ran for a second term and lost to current President Joseph Biden. He claimed that the election was rigged and that he actually won, inciting extreme reactions among his supporters.
Trump has worked in preparation to run again for the 2024 election in hopes of a second term and is the presidential candidate for the Republican party.
“I’m voting for Donald Trump because he aligns with several personal values I have about the economy, immigration and human rights,” said Lincoln Jepsen, a junior finance major. “I think he is fit for the job more than his opponent and that is why I am casting my vote for Trump this election.”
CBS News stated Trump wants to end income tax on social security, add tariffs to all imported goods and have the federal government cover the costs of In Vitro Fertilization, or IVF.
He has promised to work on ensuring all Hispanics remain in Mexico while their asylum cases are reviewed and work towards ending birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants living in the country illegally.
“I think that under Trump, this economy is the path of division and unrest in Americans, I think that would definitely continue just because we’ve seen, even since 2016,” said Anna Hunger, a senior political science major.“How he’s handled himself and the things that he’s been saying and how they have been increasingly polarized.”
Trump has stated he wants to break up the Education Department, and something similar can be found in Project 2025. In Project 2025, it mentions putting all federal organizations directly under the president. Trump has worked to separate himself from Project 2025 by saying he has not read it and does not plan to.
“So it’s very difficult to imagine constitutionally that they would be able to because these agencies are exercising a delegated power by Congress,” Clark said.“I would imagine you would see all sorts of issues like that, where the Trump administration would take some very bold position to try and shape policy on their own, and it would get overturned by the courts or Congress wouldn’t go along with it. And they would be perpetually stymied by the fact that they weren’t able to accomplish all the things that they wanted to.”
Harris began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, where she gained the reputation of being tough as she worked on cases involving gang violence and sexual abuse. This led to her election as the District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco in 2003. She held this position until 2010, when she won the election for Attorney General of California.
This win made her the first woman and first African-American to hold this position. She spent her time working to overturn California Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage. Through her work, it was overturned in 2013. In 2015, Harris declared her candidacy for the U.S. Senate. On the campaign trail, she called for immigration and criminal justice reform and protection of women’s reproductive rights.
She won the election in 2016, making her the first Indian American and second Black American woman in the Senate. She later launched her campaign to become President of the United States in 2019, and President-Elect Biden picked her as his running mate. Alongside Biden, she became Vice President of the United States in 2020. Biden came into the 2024 campaign trail seeking re-elction, but after wide concerns over his mental and physical fitness following a June debate persomance that left even longtime Biden supporters uncertain, Harris replaced him as the presidential candidate for the Democratic party.
“I think under Harris’s presidency, we would see an energetic America and one that is slowly working towards rebuilding all classes of the country, as well as a healthy balance of powers coming from all branches of government,” Hunger said.
According to CBS News, Harris wants to provide bigger tax cuts for families, a $6,000 child tax credit for parents of newborns in the first year and a $3,600 child tax credit for young children.
She plans to enact the first federal law against price gouging by food suppliers and grocery stores. She also mentioned that industry competition can help lower the costs of groceries for American citizens.
“I think that this will definitely help our perspectives in what we think the inflation crisis is right now,” Hunger said. “I think that a lot of it is just price gouging, and so I think that by her doing this, I think that it will definitely help us out more, and the big companies that are doing this can level out their prices and stop being greedy.”
Haris is vowing that during her first term, the Harris-Walz administration will provide working families who have paid rent on time for two years and are buying a home for the first time up to $25,000 in down payment assistance.
To enact these policy proposals, Congress would have to approve them as they hold the power of the purse. The power of the purse means that they have the right to raise and spend government money as they see fit. This ensures that the executive branch does not make decisions that could endanger democracy.
“A lot of the time, presidential candidates will promise things that only Congress really is going to have to do,” Clark said. “Those are all things that Congress is going to have to do. A good chunk of the rhetoric they use, the campaign promises they make are things that actually the president alone really doesn’t have the ability to do.”
The president can use executive orders to enact these policies if they so wish. An executive order is an official document that helps manage the government. It can enact the policies a president wants to use. Congress can pass legislation that stops the executive order or another president can come and undo each order with his or her own orders.
Abortion is also a major point that each candidate has spoken on. Harris has been known for her support of people’s right to choose and Trump has stated he wishes to leave it to the states to decide the laws around abortion.
“I think that as much as Trump claims to be pro-life and his campaign rides on being pro-life, I think that he would still keep abortion to the states,” Hunger said. “I don’t think that he would impose federal regulations or make sure that it is federally protected. I think that Harris would push to move that to be federally protected, as it was under Roe versus Wade. But I think, at least for Trump himself, I think that it would remain in the states, which as we’ve seen has become very dangerous.”
Harris picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate and Trump chose Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate.
A few of Trump’s former military leaders have shown reproach to him winning a second term, one even going so far as to call Trump a fascist in an interview with MSNBC.
“He is the most dangerous person ever,” said Mark Mille, military general and former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. “I had suspicions when I talked to you about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country…A fascist to the core!”
Trump has held many rallies to garner support from the people of America. One that stood out was the assasination attempt on his life on July 13 in Butler, Pa. where his ear was skimmed by the fired bullet. Two other people were injured, James Copenhaver and David Dutch and one was killed, Corey Comperatore. The shooter was 20 year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks and he was killed by secret service.
Each candidate is working to secure votes across America. Walz and former President Obama will be attending a rally in Wisconsin and Doug Emhoff will go to North Carolina to help with hurricane relief efforts. Vice President Harris participated in moderated talks with the U.S. Representative Liz Cheney in Chester County on Monday, Oct. 21. She also plans on stopping in Wisconsin and Michigan. Then, she will head to Pennsylvania for a CNN town hall event, where she will speak to the people of Delaware County in a public forum to address any concerns they may have.
Trump has even decided to work a few hours at McDonald’s in alignment with his argument that Harris has never worked there, though she claims she did. Trump plans on being in North Carolina, while his running mate will head to Arizona. This comes after he visited Pennsylvania for a rally.
The presidential candidates are working hard to secure votes as early voting opens up across the U.S. and many are unsure who will win.
