Several Southern Miss students are eligible to vote in the upcoming presidential election but are expressing concerns for the welfare of America after watching the recent debate between watching the recent debate between candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Some of their concerns center around women’s freedom, Project 2025, and the right for citizens to have a say in governmental policies.
Kayleigh Tabor, a USM student, said she does not agree with the way either candidate plans to lead the country. She believes that Trump gave misinformation during the debate and has concerns that Harris is not protecting the rights of women as vice president.
“I have no trust and faith in the democrats because they told us they would protect Roe v Wade, and didn’t,” Tabor said.
As a member of the socialist party, she does not trust either candidate. She believes women deserve to have full autonomy of their bodies and the LGBTQ community must have the same rights as the straight community. She is concerned that Harris was doing a “fan service” during the debate to people who are willing to vote for her and expressed that the vice president hasn’t done anything while in office. Also, she shared that her main issue with Trump is him spreading misinformation, such as Haitian immigrants eating pets of American citizens.
Jordaen Samuel, another USM student, also wants women and the LGBTQ community to have rights. He is pro-choice when it comes to abortion and is an active democrat. He doesn’t believe Trump is a good candidate and was flabbergasted that a man with 34 felonies was allowed to be on stage for a presidential debate. In relation to Harris, he believes that she won the debate with her policies and poise.
“Kamla was saying what she will do to protect women’s rights while Trump was talking about people eating cats and dogs,” he said. “Trump wasn’t saying enough about what he will do for Americans- just flexing what he did in his past presidency.”
Samuel thinks that Trump needed to speak more on what he wants to do in the future instead of what he did in the past and got irritated hearing Trump say Kamala didn’t do anything while in office.
“Trump was an actual president, and what did he do?” Samuel said. “He loves to flex his economy, but his economy was built from Barack Obama.”
The topic of gun control resonated most with Samuel, who acknowledged the 46 school shootings in America since the beginning of the year. He wants gun laws to be more prominent in this country so he can feel safe while getting his education.
Although he and Tabor have different opinions on the candidates, they both agree that each vote matters. Both of them expressed the importance of young people registering to vote and paying attention to the political landscape.
