People gathered to eagerly watch the US elections at the Forum on Tuesday evening. Harris supporters were confident: ‘Another Trump presidency is something I don’t want to think about.’
On Tuesday evening at the Election Night gathering in the Forum, it wasn’t hard to guess who attendees had voted for: people walked around with Harris/Walz flags, and there was even an opportunity to take a selfie with a life-sized cardboard Kamala Harris behind the famous presidential podium.
There were no American Trump supporters present — at least none who openly admitted it. All the MAGA hats were worn by people from other nationalities. And the Harris fans were confident — at least at the beginning of the evening.
‘I am confident in Harris winning because I have to be. Imagining another Trump presidency is something I don’t want to think about’, said second-year international relations student Katie McClellan from Illinois.
First-time voter
It was the first time she was eligible to vote in a presidential election. ‘It’s a shame I can’t experience this back home, but the event here in the Forum is also impressive.’
Victory for Harris, she said, would be ‘the realisation of every little girl’s dream’ and ‘would solidify the feminist dream that anyone can hold arguably the most powerful position on Earth.’ And if Trump wins? ‘That would definitely impact me wanting to move back home. Project 2025 is a dangerous theoretical plan, and as a woman, it would make me feel more anxious.’
Project 2025 is a wishlist put forward by conservative organisations and Trump allies, intended as a blueprint for Trump’s policy in the coming years. Among other actions, it includes plans for large-scale deportations of immigrants and aims to make abortion nearly inaccessible.
State Fair and Oval Office
The Forum didn’t just feature an ‘Oval Office’ setup, complete with a large screen showing CNN and chairs arranged in a semicircle for attendees, but also a State Fair, a typical American fair with live music, hotdogs, and donuts. The party continued even as Harris’s odds seemed to slip through the night.
‘Trump is a crass individual who is incredibly unprofessional’, Katie sighed. ‘Where he has brought America today is a very dark place.’
First results
Around midnight, the first results started trickling in. Spirits were still high as attendees discussed scenarios for both Harris and Trump victories. Katie also kept up hope: ‘It’s anyone’s game at this point.’
At the end of the night — with the event concluding at five in the morning — the results were still unclear. But by late Wednesday morning, the outcome was clear: Trump had taken the win.
Speaking after the news broke, Katie describes her reaction as a ‘dull resignation’, saying she fears most for the impact the results will have on reproductive rights and marriage equality. The House of Representatives turning red nearly guarantees policies like Project 2025 passing in their entirety, she fears. ‘That will inch the US further from democracy and closer to dictatorship.’