With Election Day 2024 behind us, we reached out to policy experts to get their thoughts on why Americans voted the way they did and what lies ahead for the country. In this video, Dr. Jeffrey Allen, Interim Chair of the Public Health, Health Science Department at St. Bonaventure University, shares his perspective as an expert on health care.
(Video interview by Meghan Lex, Andrew McGurl and Dominic Puccinelli)
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Categories: Jandoli Institute, Politics
Jandoli Institute 
I really like and agree with your thoughts on saying Kamala had a winning campaign. This is interesting to think about in that way and I can see it! This definitely hurt her in the end because like you mentioned it led people to stay home and not vote because they thought she was going to win with their vote or not.
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I would also have to agree with Dr. Allen in. regards to the fact that the election could have been substantially different if Joe Biden didn’t run at all. There could have possibly been a different candidate for the democrats instead of Kamala, which could have greatly affected the election.
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I agree on what was said about the voters turnout. I do feel as if people were concerned about the voting and many did opt out of voting for this election which is unfortunate.
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I agree with how you said that there is always someone that we have to blame throughout history. There always has to be a “bad guy” or someone to blame throughout history and it has not changed to this day. The demonization of immigrants was a huge part of Trump’s campaign as he would like to do a mass deportation, which will have many detrimental effects all over the country. I do think it is interesting how he did have such a high Latino vote, given this. BD.
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I agree with Dr. Allen, it’s hard to get around the people who agree with Trumps mass deportation. I also agree with the fact that Trump will 100% implement these policies, with the mass deportation, and not funding the schools with the vaccine mandates. Being in New York, I know our rights are going to be handled differently than in Texas. I feel Dr. Allen has hit many important topics throughout this segment.
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I agree with what is state about it not being a fair to say that this election proves that the majority of the country wants “Trumpism”. I also think it is important to add that the incumbent party across the globe overwhelmingly lost, many vote based on how their life has been in recent years. With Biden/ Harris coming in on the back of Covid, which changed the economic landscape and caused large inflation (whether you want to blame on the current administration or point to other variables) I believe the election results reflect the climate of the world and national economy and hardships more than a strong push for Trump. BV
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I agree that Dr. Allen’s students had more of an “elevated perspective” compared to other voters, simply with our educational background and majors of common interest. I also agree that we need to move away from the “celebrity campaign” trend. MS.
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I agree with what you said about the focus on inflation and the involvement of celebrities. It felt like Kamala didn’t understand how bad inflation was effecting people and I think that if she expressed that more deeply it could’ve helped.
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I agree with Dr. Allen in the regard that Harris’s campaign did not focus enough on the issue of inflation, which was a leading issue for citizens when deciding who to vote for. While Harris did focus on other important issues, the lack of attention to the issue of inflation most likely cost her a number of votes.
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I really liked what you mentioned about Kamala having a winning campaign. I can see why people might have felt confident enough not to vote, thinking she would 100% win. I also agree with Dr. Allen that the election could have been very different if Joe Biden hadn’t run, possibly leading to a different Democratic candidate that could have impacted the outcome. This just shows the importance of everyones vote.
CP
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I agree with Dr. Allen that once Trump gets into office a lot of the things he promised like mass deportation will happen. I also agree with him on things like abortion bans will start to happen in Red states, SNAP and WIC may disappear, as well as vaccine mandates.
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I agree with Dr. Allen when he was talking about there always is someone to demonize. Throughout history we have always had someone to demonize and that still is how we act within our society to this day. Trumps campaign was very focused on the demonization of immigrants. It is very interesting to see how much of his vote was of the Latino population since his whole campaign he talked about deportation.
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The results of the election were a huge surprise to many. In fact, it wasn’t really close. There are many factors for this which Dr. Allen discusses in this clip. One observation Dr. Allen made regarding SNAP benefits and Medicaid options for people in red states. These supports are state driven (while federally funded, states can opt in or not to medicaid). Many of red state voters rely on these programs and should they be cut (and undoubtedly they will be) it may affect how they vote in the next election. When you can’t get groceries using SNAP and other advantages that medicaid provides low income individuals may become disenfranchised with the system. Mass deportations are very scary, and that alone could affect the vote in four or even 2 years (senate and house). Finally, I believe that is has to “play out” like Dr. Allen suggested. CFC
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I agree with Dr. Allen when he said that he believes that if Joe Biden never ran for this election, rather than dropping out that Kamala would’ve had many more votes. I think tons of people associated Kamala with Biden dropping out of the election. I also agree when he said that Trumpism is not about polices perspectives, but more about his personality. I know so many people who just love Trump because of his personality and not what he plans on doing for America. Another perspective I agree with is when Dr. Allen when he said due to us living in New York we will be more protected in ways, which makes me feel better that as an educator Dr. Allen has some stability in our state. LR
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I agree that many voters, or people who would vote, didn’t vote because they thought that Harris was a shoe-in. People didn’t show up cause they believed that she would win and why would they vote if they knew it. I also agree on how protected we are living and going to a school in a blue state such as New York. My parent’s jobs as teachers are not in jeopardy as they may be in Florida for example. As a woman, many of my rights will remain, but in red states, that won’t be in the case. CW
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I agree with Dr. Allen that Trump will start by implementing the easier changes first like defunding school with vaccine mandates. I think this is a major issue and will cause diseases that have been eliminated due to heard immunity, to come back.
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I agreed with your statement that Kamala did not campaign in the right way, stating she went with a winning campaign and many voters did not come out.
TO
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I completely agree with you when you say that you think that Kamala didn’t gain enough traction because it felt there was almost no contest for her being the nominee. I also agreed with your point where you said she didn’t campaign properly, I found her campaign to be very anti-Trump and not so big on actually what she would do.
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I completely agree with you and how Trumps Campaign is swaying to his audience on claiming mass deportation first thing he will do when he gets into office. I believe he does a big talk about his campaign but it would be hard to manage this without ruining the economy.
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