Vice President Kamala Harris, a Howard alumna and Democratic presidential candidate, conceded the election on Wednesday, composedly standing in front of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hall. Many students, faculty and staff stood with her, crowding the front of the podium and watching as she swiftly ended her campaign with a motivational speech.
The news of current President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over Harris fostered a range of emotions from many Howard students. Canceled classes, teary eyes and pushback from peers, however, left some students with right-leaning and conservative views feeling hesitant about sharing their opinions.
The College Republicans chapter at Howard, for example, is not a registered organization. The group struggled to be officially recognized and faced opposition on campus around 2017.
While small, the Black voice is still present in the GOP and thus on Howard’s campus, too. According to AP News, 16 percent of Black voters supported Trump in the 2024 election, which is double the amount of Black voters who voted for Trump in 2020. As of April 2024, 12 percent of Black voters nationally align with the Republican Party.
While some students feel there should be an open dialogue between those of differing political views, they also said it can be difficult to coexist and have productive conversations during a presidential election that three of four adults believed would determine the fate of democracy.
Kwesi Michai, a self-described social and economic conservative and sophomore computer science major from Chicago, has dealt with backlash caused by the charged political climate.
Michai appeared in an interview with ABC News (Australia) at Harris’ campaign rally on Election Day. In the video, he said he preferred Trump because of his tax policies.
Michai later said he voted for Harris despite not agreeing with her policies because she is a Howard alumna, and he wanted to be a part of history. He said he was joking about liking Trump better in the interview.
“I do not identify with the Republican Party,” he said.
However, because of the interview, Michai said people responded by saying horrible things about him.
“People are saying they don’t want to be friends or be associated with me anymore over one thing I said that wasn’t even true,” he said.
Michai noted that many students have strong emotional ties to this election, as Howard’s student body is mostly Black women. In 2022, 73.4 percent of Howard’s degree recipients were women.
“She [Harris] understands what they want and need,” he said.
Because of the backlash, Michai said he feels a lot more discouraged to share his beliefs about policy in general. He said people should be able to share their opinions about politics without “being harassed on the internet.”
Michai said there are no spaces where he can express his political beliefs on campus, and he hasn’t met anyone with similar ideas, but that does not bother him.
“I’m sure there are people on campus [with conservative views], but I’m in Washington, D.C., at probably one of the most liberal colleges in the country, so, I mean, it’s kind of what I signed up for,” he said.
Michai is still open to having conversations with anyone willing to talk. He said society progresses with civilized conversations.
“We just need to be a lot more open-minded and be more open to conversation rather than just jumping to conclusions and making assumptions about people,” Michai said.
Boinan Fangamou, a conservative student who preferred to be called “Fortune,” is an undecided freshman Liberty University transfer student from Warrenton, Virginia. As a Black male Republican who voted for Trump, he said being conservative at a largely liberal university is interesting and insightful.
Fortune, like many Americans, said he does not believe the candidate representing his party is the best person to do so. He disagrees with his party on the issue of abortion, stating a woman should be able to do what she wants with her body.
However, he does believe Trump is a better leader than Harris. As a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadet, he said he can’t trust Harris to care for the military because she “doesn’t even know there’s troops in active military zones right now,” referencing a statement she made during the Sept. 10 presidential debate.
Fortune described engaging in political dialogue on campus as speaking with “overly emotional students” telling him he’s voting against his people, though he believes neither president is supposed to accommodate one group of people.
Fortune responded to concerns about Trump’s past racial controversies by mentioning how current President Joe Biden faced similar controversies, both before and during his presidency. He does not believe Trump wants to revert the U.S. to a pre-Civil Rights Era status quo. He also said the infamous slogan, “Make America Great Again,” is “not that deep.”
Because of the constant pushback against his beliefs, Fortune prefers to stay quiet, allowing others to express their beliefs. He said he is focusing on the bigger picture and receiving his degree from a historically rich campus while being around people who will challenge his stances and teach him what not to do.
Jayla Page-Thomas is a freshman psychology and criminology double major with biology and Greek minors from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She voted for Harris and has challenged the beliefs of her father, who planned on voting for Trump.
Page-Thomas said her father is anti-welfare and anti-abortion. She said he believes anti-abortion laws will keep the Black community alive for more generations to come. He also believes Trump is as good as former President Barack Obama, will bring back stimulus checks and has better presidential experience than Harris.
While he’s not a registered Republican, she said her father values their more traditional lifestyle and loves the concept of the American Dream, even if he does not believe it was made for Black people.
Page-Thomas said she disagrees with most of her father’s political views and opinions and has found it difficult to engage in dialogue with him.
“It’s honestly easier to listen than argue with him,” she said.
At Howard, she said it’s harder to accept Black Republicans on an abolition-based, majority Democratic campus. To Page-Thomas, the idea of “Black People for Trump” sounds like “Black People for Jim Crow.”
Despite her clashing views with her father and other right-leaning individuals, Page-Thomas believes there should be spaces for people all over the political spectrum on Howard’s campus.
“Black Republicans exist, and they should feel allowed to express themselves,” she said.
As long as people can express themselves calmly, Page-Thomas believes there should be an open community and dialogue. She realizes this might be difficult, as she said America has made politics that attack people’s personhood and existence.
Copy edited by Jalyn Lovelady
