Elections 2024

  Podcast by Joe Fata and Hunter Musi Like at many universities, Stanford experienced a rise in student activism last year over the war in Gaza. But this fall, as extremely contentious and consequential U.S. elections approached, the campus appeared markedly less political. In interviews recorded before Tuesday's elections, Stanford students reflected about the state of political activism on The Farm. 

  Podcast by Zach Zafran Media and politics have gone hand in hand for centuries in the United States. However, the media landscape has changed -- even in comparison to the 2020 presidential election. In interviews recorded before Tuesday's voting, Stanford University students and experts discuss how these changes impact their views on the 2024 race. The topics of social media, misinformation, and trust drive our conversation. 

By Lindsey Devir and Kaleigh Sommers Who won the election between Call Her Daddy and The Joe Rogan Experience? Donald Trump’s victory on Tuesday would suggest Rogan, but interviews with a dozen Stanford University students indicate that neither podcast made a big difference to them -- despite media hype that the chase for young, undecided voters ran through the studios of Spotify’s two enormously popular hosts. Willow Herz, a senior majoring in American Studies and a Kamala Harris supporter, saw more complexities than advantages in the vice president’s decision to appear on Call Her Daddy last month. Alex Cooper, the...

By Sakeena Razick Indian American voters, who organized as never before on behalf of a presidential candidate who shared their ethnicity, expressed disappointment following the Tuesday defeat of Kamala Harris and the return to office of Donald Trump. “Most people, at least in my ecosystem, expected a win. To go from that optimism, even midday, to the depths of darkness is pretty heartbreaking to say the least,” said Karthik Selvakumar, an Indian American based in Texas. Selvakumar added that against the intensity of Trump’s victory, many minority groups are uncertain about what’s to come. Selvakumar worked on the unsuccessful campaign...

By Adelaide Madary California voters on Tuesday approved Proposition 3, removing language from the state's constitution that defined marriage as only between a man and a woman. Same-sex marriage has been legal in California since 2013. Over the past two decades, there's been a shift in how religious communities approach this issue. In 2008, voters passed Proposition 8, which restored language to the California constitution that would only recognize marriage between a man and a woman. Leading up to that vote, several major religious groups -- including the California Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day...

By Barron Nguyen California voters on Tuesday approved Proposition 4, signaling a big shift for how the state is addressing a wide range of risk concerns that scientists say are linked to worsening global climate change. Prop. 4 wasn’t considered widely controversial, overshadowed by bolder ballot measures on criminal justice reform and affordable housing, among others. But the measure’s passage now raises questions, likely to divide the state’s environmental community, over how to disburse California’s largest–ever public investment in climate resilience. Prop. 4 will raise $10 billion through a state bond issue to be spent on a broad assortment of...

By Francesca Pinney Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election warrants a re-evaluation of where the conservative movement stands, according to Stanford University scholars and students, with the goal of determining whether the Republican Party is still synonymous with traditional conservative values. William F. Buckley’s National Review magazine, established in 1955, defined the modern conservative movement and then-U.S. Sen.Goldwater (R-Ariz.) began defining its contours in the 1960s. Professor Pedro Regalado, an assistant professor of history, said the “real revolution” came two decades later under President Ronald Reagan, who cemented the supply-side economic principles of tax cuts and deregulation as paramount...

By Rebecca Louie In a country bitterly divided by the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Donald Trump, the student organizers of Stanford University’s Democracy Day attempted the improbable: for a day at least, to find some common ground. And by mid-afternoon Tuesday, with all classes canceled and none of the votes yet counted, they saw several hundred of their peers flock to Meyer Green--decorated with streamers and balloons in red, white and blue--and other campus venues to hear a range of political voices. “We're really trying to get at this idea that in the face...

By Kelly Wang ASHWIN RAMASWAMI ’21 (Senate, GA) Recent Stanford University graduate Ashwin Ramaswami (D) lost his bid for a Georgia state senate seat Tuesday against incumbent, first-term State Sen. Shawn Still, an ardent supporter of Donald Trump who had challenged the integrity of the last presidential election. The race was among the most competitive in Georgia, itself a battleground in the national contest between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Ramaswami won 46 percent of the vote, losing to Still by just under 7,000 votes. Ramasami's campaign raised more than $942,000, far more than his opponent, who raised around...