Lying sleepless in bed on the morning of Nov. 6, Myah Balaporia checked her phone. 

“I saw multiple notifications that he had won,” Balaporia said. “I got a text from one of my friends back home.” Her friend had texted her, “I can’t do this.” Balaporia wrote back, “neither can I.”

Balaporia, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’26, is from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and her parents are immigrants. She said former President Donald Trump’s reelection made her worry about their rights. 

“It’s hard to think about the safety of everyone I love and care about. I don’t know. It’s just hard. Everything is hard right now,” Balaporia said.

For Balaporia and some of the Fordham community, the results of the 2024 presidential election have been an object of intense focus. The monumental political event had included a rapid campaign, rambunctious news events, podcast appearances, assassination attempts and so much more. In the wee hours of the morning on Nov. 6, as the AP called the race for President Trump, the results were anything but inconsequential.

“For him to come back and, again, kind of against the odds, facing criminal indictments and obviously a couple assassination attempts, and just the overall political climate of the times, it was just interesting to see history unfold in that way.” Michael Bellia, GSBRH ’25

Fordham College Republicans also sent members to campaign in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with the thinnest vote margins in the state. According to Pennsylvania’s election results website, Trump led by less than one percentage point.

Some Fordham students were delighted with the outcome. In fact, a few had been actively campaigning for the former president. 

Michael Bellia, Gabelli School of Business at Rose Hill ’25, is the current president of the Fordham College Republicans club. Bellia was working at Newsmax Media as Trump’s “commanding” victory played out.

“For him to come back and, again, kind of against the odds, facing criminal indictments and obviously a couple assassination attempts, and just the overall political climate of the times, it was just interesting to see history unfold in that way,” Bellia said.

Bellia said his club had worked hard to do their part to push the former president to victory. 

“There was a tremendous amount of phone banking that we did,” Bellia said. 

Fordham College Republicans also sent members to campaign in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with the thinnest vote margins in the state. According to Pennsylvania’s election results website, Trump led by less than one percentage point.

“There was an effort there, no doubt, and I think all that work definitely helped us,” Bellia said.

Democratic-leaning students also canvassed in Pennsylvania. They focused on Allentown, the state’s third most populous city. Fordham College Dems Secretary Caroline Lehman, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’26, said the club partnered with Swing Left, a progressive political action group, to spread awareness on Sunday. 

“Fourteen of us knocked on over 300 doors,” Lehman said. 

Fordham College Dems also held a watch party on election night, and Lehman said attendees began to grow nervous around 10:30 p.m. As she watched the Trump victory become more and more imminent through the night, she became increasingly distraught. 

“Watching this all unfold felt literally horrible. Me and my roommates have been crying all morning.” Caroline Lehman, FCRH ’26

“Prior to that, everyone was really excited. People were cheering,” Lehman said. “I was trying to stay optimistic.”

Soon, she left the party and went home, where she watched the coverage with her roommates. Eventually, she found herself watching it by herself. 

“Until 5 a.m., I sat there, alone,” Lehman said. 

With all the work she had done, the prospect of Vice President Kamala Harris losing devastated Lehman.

“Watching this all unfold felt literally horrible. Me and my roommates have been crying all morning,” Lehman said on Nov. 6. “I was sobbing last night.”

Other students watched the results without passion for either candidate, like Bobby Jones, FCLC ’25, who said he is more “politically disengaged.”

Despite the result of the election, Lehman didn’t regret any of the effort she and her peers put into campaigning for Harris.

“We have done a lot in this election,” Lehman said. “I think we bonded as a group and it felt like what we were doing was really important. It felt good to inspire people and be politically active, especially because a lot of people that went on that trip were freshmen that had never canvassed before.”

Given the result, Lehman said she found herself “disappointed.”

Other students watched the results without passion for either candidate, like Bobby Jones, FCLC ’25, who said he is more “politically disengaged.” Regardless of his apathy, he said that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) failed to effectively market their candidates. 

“The DNC has s— the bed,” Jones said.

Democrats did indeed suffer losses in the down-ballot races for Congress. Republicans claimed a majority in the Senate as of Nov. 8, according to New York Times reports. They also currently enjoy a healthy lead in the House of Representatives.

When Jones woke up, both the results and reactions were what he expected. 

“The general mood at MSNBC, while downtrodden, was more angry,” Jones said. “The democratic base is angry and should be angry.” 

“I immediately was on Instagram. I saw so many of my classmates posting, ‘yes, Trump.’” Ashton Green, FCLC ’28

Jones said he thought the mood on campus was gloomy the morning of Nov. 6.

“My lecture this morning felt like a funeral,” Jones said.

Another Fordham student also saw the Trump victory incoming. Ashton Green, FCLC ’28, told her roommates, “it’s not looking good, let’s just go to bed.” 

Green, a Texan, was disappointed in how members of her local community voted. 

“I immediately was on Instagram,” Green said. “I saw so many of my classmates posting, ‘yes, Trump.’” She said she spent a lot of time that morning unfollowing people. 

Another voter put off by the president-elect is Sean Fitzgerald, FCRH ’26. But he also said he wasn’t necessarily a big fan of Harris either. 

“I feel like they are both trying to take away individual liberties and rights, just different ones,” Fitzgerald said. “I’m a big environmentalist. I believe in the importance of the preservation of the environment. I believe that is the most important issue on the political map right now.”

Because of this, Fitzgerald said that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was his previous top choice. Kennedy ran as an independent candidate prior to suspending his campaign and endorsing Trump on Aug. 23.

In contrast, one student from Brooklyn strongly preferred Harris, and was sad to see her lose. Noah Hemley, FCLC ’25, lives in Bay Ridge, and he said that the loss would mean he hopes to work again for the Brooklyn City Council member Alexa Alvilés in order to “mitigate the repercussions” of Trump’s victory.

Regardless of their personal political leanings, Fordham students are staring down the future of an America in which Trump will once again occupy the nation’s highest office.