By the early hours of Wednesday, Nov. 6, it had become increasingly clear that former president Donald Trump would be the president-elect of the United States. Over the course of an election night that saw Vice President Kamala Harris underperform across the country, failing to win the swing states Joe Biden had won in 2020, the nation’s rightward shift was undeniable.

In the East Lansing precincts that compose MSU’s campus, Harris failed to reach the levels of support Democrats had earned in 2020 and in the 2022 midterm election. She ultimately received 74.52% of on-campus votes.

Social relations and policy sophomore Em Rigda stayed up watching election returns into early Wednesday morning, finally deciding to call it a night after the Associated Press (AP) called Pennsylvania for Trump. With Pennsylvania secured, Trump was virtually guaranteed to win the presidency.

"It’s been a rough couple of days," Rigda said. "It’s a sad day in America, to say the least. I’ve spoken to a lot of my friends, they’re all really disappointed with how everything turned out."

Mechanical engineering and history senior Ethan Newman spent election night at Republican U.S. House candidate Tom Barrett’s election watch party. On Tuesday night, Barrett defeated former Michigan Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr., flipping a key house seat that may contribute to a Republican takeover of Congress.

Newman said he’s hopeful that Trump’s second presidency will strengthen the U.S.’s presence abroad in foreign conflicts. Newman hopes that Trump will take an "all-in" approach to the war in Ukraine, moves he believes would deter Russia from further encroaching on Western Europe.

"I’m feeling pretty good about today," Newman said. "Granted, I might be an outlier."

While the AP has called the race for Trump, the race’s final results won’t be known for another few days, meaning a full picture of what went right for Republicans and wrong for Democrats is still unclear. As of now, a backlash against inflation during the Biden administration and Trump’s electoral gains with minority voters seem to have played key roles in the outcome.

Construction management freshman Gavin Marmai said he believes Harris lost because voters were unsatisfied with her lack of action as vice president, and because Trump promised to improve the economy.

"She had four years to make a change, and she didn’t," Marmai said. "I feel like it’s better to flip the page than to have them run again."

Rigda pointed to unexpected turnout from Trump voters as a key factor in his victory. Paired with bomb threats at polling places in Pennsylvania on Election Day and ballot drop boxes being set on fire in Arizona, Rigda said, Democrats did not see the turnout they needed.

"I’m not saying it was rigged or anything, because I do trust the democratic system," Rigda said. "But it’s interesting, the turnout was very different than what I was expecting."

On Wednesday morning, Trump delivered a victory speech to a crowd of supporters in Florida where he promised to bring America into a "golden age." Harris is set to address the nation at 4 p.m. today after conceding the election via a phone call to Trump.

Looking toward what the next four years will bring, political science junior Lily Watkins said she fears the country is stuck in a cycle controlled by Trump.

"My biggest concern is that we're just not moving forward at all," Watkins said, referencing how Trump and anti-Trump politicians have dominated the last decade in American politics. "We’re just gonna keep swinging back and forth."

Despite not knowing what exactly will come from Trump’s presidency, Rigda maintained that the election’s results will have lasting ramifications. In his victory speech, Trump described an urgent need for his administration to repair the nation and called his movement "the greatest political movement of all time."

"I think that this is going to be a major moment in American history," Rigda said. "I really am disappointed in the American public with their decision on this one."