Trump points to the crowd at the 2023 Turning Point Action Conference in West Palm Beach, Florida. Courtesy | Gage Skidmore, Flickr

Former president Donald Trump won his second presidential election Tuesday with at least 295 electoral votes, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee. 

“I am glad of the result, more glad that it seems to reflect something Lincoln described: ‘A majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people,’” College President Larry Arnn told The Collegian in an email. “I think that’s true and am happy that it seems still to prevail. The winning party won narrowly and broadly. The people can change their minds if it pleases them.”

Republicans also took control of the U.S. Senate after flipping seats in Montana, Ohio, and West Virginia, giving them at least 52 seats in the chamber and the possibility of as many as three more, depending on final results in Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. The House of Representatives is still up for grabs, as Republicans won at least 206 of the 218 seats needed for a majority, with 38 races undecided as of Wednesday night. 

“I kind of got sucked back into watching the news the last few days, getting my hopes up, and I felt like at some point last night, Lucy was gonna pull the football away, I would be Charlie Brown, and I would be disappointed,” Professor of Biology Anthony Swinehart said. “But obviously, as a conservative, I was happy with the outcome.”

Victories in the battleground states of Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin pushed the president-elect over the edge in the early morning hours Wednesday. With the later addition of Michigan, only the outcomes in Arizona and Nevada remain unknown, according to the Associated Press. 

Trump won about 51% of the popular vote, having captured more than 72 million votes at press time. Harris had fewer than 68 million votes. 

“I think the ‘red wave’ we saw across all of the swing states, the Senate, U.S. House, and the Michigan state House show that Americans are dissatisfied with the policies of the Democratic Party and look for strong leaders in Washington that will fight for the people,” said junior Hinson Peed, president of Hillsdale College Republicans. 

Fox News projected Trump’s victory as early as 2 a.m. on Nov. 6, but most outlets waited until shortly after 5:30 a.m. to make the call. 

“I thought it would be really close, we would be waiting weeks to find out, there would be monkeying around with the returns,” said Paul Moreno, professor of history. “I didn’t expect the clear landslide that we ended up with. So I was just astonished as usual.”

Trump will become only the second president to serve two nonconsecutive terms, following the example of Grover Cleveland, who won in 1884, lost in 1888, and won in 1892.

With successful abortion referenda in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and New York and a chance to win a majority of seats in the House, Democrats should not be overly negative about what happened on election night, especially looking forward to 2026, according to Associate Professor of Politics Joseph Postell. 

“I can see it being within the realm of possibility for them to take both the Senate and the House,” Postell said. “That tends to happen in these first midterm elections.”

Senior Kelsey Griswold-Bacigalupi, president of Hillsdale College Democrats, said Trump has redefined modern American conservatism, and is interested to see how the country will look in four years.

“America will be drastically changed at the end of Trump’s second term,” Griswold-Bacigalupi told The Collegian in an email. “Whether for the better or the worse, it will be declared along party lines. My sights will be on the steps the Republican Party takes in determining what a post-Trump candidate would look like.”

In 2016, Trump won 306 electoral votes, compared to 232 for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who carried the popular vote. In congressional elections two years later, Republicans gained seats in the Senate but lost control of the House of Representatives. In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump, 306 electoral votes to 232. 

Some Hillsdale College faculty are not excited about Trump’s win. According to a voluntary survey conducted by The Collegian, 36 of the 93 faculty and staff respondents reported voting for Harris, other, or remaining undecided. 

“I voted for Harris. I’m very disappointed that Trump won, but I’m glad for the clarity of the result,” said Peter Blum, professor of sociology. “My deepest hope is that those who refuse to identify Christianity with a political party or a nation will continue to find and raise their voices.”

Associate Professor of Philosophy Ian Church also voted for Harris and said he appreciated her words after the race was called. 

“As I listen to Kamala Harris’ concession speech, I’m reminded of why I voted for her,” Church said. “Whatever policy disagreements I might have with her, at least she has the strength of character to admit she lost. Without that strength of character — sacred to our republic — I don’t think anyone is worthy of leading our great nation.” 

Assistant Professor of Theology Cody Strecker expressed concern for the election’s reflection on American Christianity. 

“Pope St. John Paul II always said the needs of the poor take priority over the desires of the rich,” Strecker said. “At the moment mostly what I feel is concern about what this election will mean for the poor in this country. The promised deportation of multiple millions of illegal immigrants would be a moral atrocity.”

According to Moreno, this election cycle had weak candidates all around. 

“The Democrats are completely out of control. Just the insanity of what that party stands for now is beyond the common sense of ordinary Americans,” Moreno said. 

Moreno said neither candidate proposed specific policies to address the biggest problems the country faces like the sovereign debt crisis and foreign policy crises in China, Russia, and Iran. 

“I don’t think Trump, or much of the Republican Party, has much of a policy agenda that I can discern,” Moreno said. 

Charles Steele, associate professor of economics, said Trump is the better bet from an economic standpoint. 

“I don’t think there’s any question that Trump’s victory is better for economic growth because it means less regulation — hopefully a lot less regulation — and reduction of federal bureaucracy, which is a possibility,” Steele said. “If there’s any hope of getting out of our debt problem — which is really a serious problem many people recognize — then it would be a Trump victory.” 

One thing the Harris campaign did make clear was its commitment to protecting abortion, which became a central issue during this election. According to Gary Wolfram, director of economics and professor of political economy, voters have realized that it is possible for them to vote for abortion measures on a state level but support Trump on a national level. Wolfram said this election proved that voters care more about immigration and election policies than national abortion measures.

Assistant Professor of Religion Don Westblade said he thinks the national reaction to the outcome has more to do with Harris losing than Trump winning.

“I think most people in this election were either voting against Harris or against Trump, and not really so much for those candidates,” Westblade said. 

For those on campus and off who were surprised by the outcome, Professor of History Darryl Hart said the press is partially to blame for the upset. 

“I don’t want to just blame the press, but I do think the mainstream media deserves blame,” Hart said, “[for] not trying to think about the reasons why people might not want to vote for Democrats and might even find Trump at times appealing.”

Despite the relief many conservatives feel, there is still work to be done, according to Professor of Philosophy and Religion Nathan Schlueter. 

“I feel like the good guys right after the battle of Helm’s Deep: relieved and grateful that we have just bought precious time,” Schlueter said. “But the Ring of Power has not been destroyed, and I fear there are some difficult days ahead. Time to get our boots on, as I’ve heard someone say.”