By Harrison Hamm

The 2024 presidential election is approaching, but enthusiasm among Denison students is not high. For a variety of reasons, the candidates do not inspire excitement among students, according to polling from March of this year.

The candidates have been known for months, as Donald Trump had little problem navigating the Republican primaries. Trump famously has an established, close-to-immovable base of voters, and Denison’s campus mostly tilts left. President Biden has a nationwide problem generating enthusiasm among left-leaning voters, especially younger ones. That problem shows up in surveys of Denison students.

The vast majority of Denisonians across the political spectrum reported feeling unhappy with the major party nominees in 127’s March 2024 survey. (About 70 percent of overall respondents identified as liberal, progressive, or socialist.) That is most apparent among progressives and socialists (see the figure below), who seem particularly unfavorable toward the more moderate Biden. And, as we’ll get to momentarily, they are dissatisfied with the president’s response to the conflict in Gaza.

Unpopular major-party candidates are a recipe for third-party voting. The survey indicates some dabbling in that area. Not even a majority indicate they would vote for Biden if the election were held today. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent who gained popularity in part from anti-vaccine rhetoric, is at 15 percent support. Kennedy often gains support from conservatives due to his policy stances, though both Biden and Trump have taken steps to diminish his influence. Even “sitting it out” beats Trump among Denisonians, though there were sprinklings of support for other third party candidates, too. Cornel West and Jill Stein, who both are considered threats to pull votes from Biden, are the most prominent.

While enthusiasm for the candidates is not high, that doesn’t mean that students are checked out, and many indicated that they recognize the election’s stakes. 72 percent of students either “agree” or “strongly agree” that the election will lead to violence. 73 percent noted that democratic backsliding — or the weakening of long-held democratic norms — could happen as a result of the election. Many fewer think the US could lose its status as a result of the election outcome.

You’ll note, too, that 43 percent of students said that Biden doesn’t deserve their vote because of his response to Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza. Of course, that concern is concentrated on the left and below in the figure is what that breakdown looks like among left-leaning students. Fully three-quarters of self-identified socialists believe this, though the portions of progressives and liberals that agree are much smaller. 

There is reason to be concerned that students are apathetic about the candidates, but they’re certainly not apathetic about the issues and their potential to shape the outcome of the election. Projected turnout remains strong across partisan identities, though predictably lower among independents who generally don’t perceive a stake in politics. The vast majority of students on both sides of the aisle, despite their feelings toward the candidates, reported that they’re likely to vote.

The turnout numbers indicate that Denisonians understand the stake of the election, which has again been touted as the most important of our lifetimes — even if the candidates don’t seem to inspire optimism.

Harrison Hamm is a senior who is enjoying the last few weeks before graduation.