CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. — College students Ryan Thies and Matthew Craig represent two different sides of the political spectrum but shared the same emotion after the 2024 presidential election was called.
“I thought it would be a very close election, it turns out it’s not super close,” Thies stated. As the president of the Dickinson College Democrats, Thies said the sky seemed more dull on campus come Wednesday morning, saturated with the loss of his candidate's campaign.
But Matthew Craig, the president of the Dickinson College Republicans said despite his excitement he was also shocked at the outcome.
“I think it’s safe to call it a Republican landslide, I was expecting a lot more of a closer race,” Craig added.
Sarah Niebler is an associate professor of political science at Dickinson College and said the pair represent just one demographic of voters who helped tip the presidential election scales in favor of President-elect Donald Trump.
“Across the country and even in Pa. we saw pretty much every demographic group, every county, every region shift to the right, as compared to 2020,” Niebler explained.
In the 2020 election, more voters under the age of 45 leaned left while those 45 years and over tended to be more right-leaning. Just four years later those general statistics are still true, but across the board, the number of people who voted Republican increased.
Although Niebler says the result doesn’t just come down to age. She spent Election Day at the Dickinson College polling location and observed a different trend in the numbers there.
“It is not that breakdown, it’s much more left-leaning, more democratic. So I think there’s probably an education and age story that needs to be told together.” Niebler said.
She added that gender could also be a factor.
“The two people that lost to Donald Trump were both women and the one person who beat him was a white man. So I think we are going to need to look into that and think about the degree to which gender plays a factor,” Niebler said.
While demographics can play a large role in election results, so do the issues on people’s minds.
Thies said during his time interacting with voters as president of the Dickinson College Democrats he learned how people thought about one of the biggest topics in the 2024 election.
“They were very concerned about inflation and the state of the economy. They didn’t feel like Harris addressed that enough or they felt like voting for Harris meant a vote for the current economic situation and they wanted change,” Thies explained.
Political experts say the shift to the right across all voting demographics indicates there’s not just one factor that tipped the scales, instead, it points to a larger trend or a combination of influences.