This year’s election granted Republicans leadership over the presidency and both chambers of Congress. However, a majority of Tufts students reside in blue states, where most residents voted for candidates from the Democratic Party. Students from red states, who will experience more policy changes amid a Republican sweep of the federal government, hold a smaller space on campus. Three Tufts students from different red states — Ashton Dudley, Alice Estrada and Clare Eddy — discussed their post-election reflections, their varying conservative cultures and how their home states affect their place in the Tufts community.
All three students expressed that their left-leaning views led to negative emotions in the wake of national elections.
“I was less sad and more just a little angry,” Dudley, a senior from outside of Birmingham, Ala. said. “I’m kind of fearful of what’s going to happen to people at home.”
Eddy, a sophomore from Jackson Hole, Wyo., agreed and added that she did not find the Republican victory unexpected.
“I don’t want to say that I’m surprised about the results of the general election, but I’m just kind of disappointed because there was a lot of potential for change,” she said.
Estrada, a junior from Miami, Fla., said that she had been optimistic about Vice President Kamala Harris’s prospects of winning the presidential election before the results came out.
Dudley agreed with this sentiment, describing the skewed perspectives of the Tufts community.
“I think that being here is definitely like a bubble,” Dudley said. “It’s very true that, when we were all surrounded by people who thought the election was going to go one way or were hopeful that it would go that way, I think that we forget that a large portion of the country does not think the way that the Tufts community does.”
This disproportionate set of views even expands to the area surrounding Tufts, according to Eddy.
“You walk to Davis Square and you see like every other house having a ‘Harris/Walz’ sign and it gave me a glimmer of hope that I don’t think I would have had, necessarily, if I were at home because … there [are] a lot more conservative people [there],” she said.
Despite the disappointment Eddy felt from the election results, she expressed her gratitude for being present in Massachusetts and on a campus that provides access to services such as abortion, a contested issue in Wyoming.
With Miami being in a red county, Estrada noted that being at Tufts instead of at home allows her to more fully express her emotions about election outcomes, especially since many members of her family hold conservative viewpoints.
“[Home is] not a very safe space to be sad about the election,” she said.
Along with Estrada, Eddy and Dudley are from households with members that hold opposing political views from them. With holiday breaks fast approaching, these students hold mixed stances on whether they will breach the conversation of politics with their conservative family members.
Since some of Dudley’s family is conservative, she said she would rather not get into political arguments with them because it may lead to her feeling ostracized.
“I don’t want to be like the annoying ‘liberal snowflake’ at family gatherings,” she said.
On the other hand, Estrada already anticipates family arguments will occur when she goes home for Thanksgiving break.
While Eddy has a stepfather who holds conservative views, she noted that their conversations are usually productive because they listen to one another, which is something she said she believes is often lost in political conversations.
Eddy felt differently when it came to people that she follows on social media from home who posted positive reactions to the election results. She said that she had “no inclination” to respond to their posts and “cause discourse” where there otherwise wouldn’t be.
“I don’t like to stir the pot,” Eddy said.
Although Eddy, Estrada and Dudley will all go back to relatively conservative households, their communities and states as a whole differ vastly from one another.
Estrada attributed the city's red tilt to Miami's large Cuban population and older residents.
“It’s a bunch of elderly people that escaped communism [in Cuba],” she said.
Eddy is from Teton, the only blue county in all of Wyoming, so she knows people of many different political standings. She has, however, seen what Wyoming’s conservative culture is like while traveling through the state’s 22 other counties.
She said Wyoming’s form of conservatism stems from many factors: people’s desire to own guns for property protection or hunting, the large oil drilling industry, which produces jobs for Wyoming residents, and religion.
Similarly, Dudley said that in Alabama, religion could have been a driving factor for people to vote for President-elect Donald Trump due to his campaign marketing.
“People who are very religious will be drawn to that kind of advertising because it’s kind of similar messaging,” she said.
Dudley also detailed the prevalence of conservatism in her state and said that Alabama residents resonate with Republican officials more because they often promote smaller or state government over the federal government.
“I think that [conservative culture is] pretty deeply bred into the fabric of Alabama,” she said. “The people of Alabama, largely working class, … feel like they’ve been disenfranchised by the institution of the American government.”
Though Dudley does not agree with the views of Republicans in her state, she underscored the value of understanding why people vote the way they do. She believes that Alabama, as well as other red states, should not be deemed lost to liberal values and, to create progressive change, the South needs support.
“I think people who are really liberal leaning are always trying to be more empathetic and open themselves up to hearing different voices and opinions,” Dudley said. “I think that a large part of that empathy needs to extend to people in the American South.”
These students have found ways to keep their connection to home alive at Tufts. Estrada noted the friendships that she has made with other Tufts students from Miami.
“We relate a lot to each other, … so I feel like we have a community,” she said.
In addition to finding community, Dudley is writing her senior thesis on art from her home state in order to show pride in her culture.
Eddy has not purposely tried to connect with people from red states but is glad to know that there are people on campus that she can relate to if needed.
She noted her thankfulness for having lived in both a red and blue state because she has gotten to experience many different political views.
“It was a very interesting dichotomy to experience and frankly, I’m grateful that I have a multitude of perspectives in my life,” Eddy said.
