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Red, blue and ‘I don’t care’ IU students share their visions for America By Madeline Slepski, Ellie Adam, Samantha Camire, Jasmine Wright and Jackson Powers news@idsnews.com
Editor’s note: This story includes mention of potentially triggering situations including abortion, sexual abuse and gun violence. Leading up to Election Day, the Indiana Daily Student spoke with multiple IU students as they cast their votes and learned of the results of the election. More than one week removed from Nov. 5, here are their stories. *** Landon Yockey was ready to make America great again. The IU sophomore drove more than an hour away from campus Nov. 1 to the early voting station in Hendricks County, a county that traditionally goes red.
ALAYNA WILKENING | IDS
Campaign signs line the sidewalk Nov. 5, 2024, at Jackson Creek Middle School in Bloomington. An estimated 200 people had cycled through the location in the first two hours of polling.
As soon he walked in the door, he saw the line stretching down the halls, twisting around corners. The poll worker strolling down the hall told voters that lines had been up to two hours for the last week. The 19-year-old didn’t mind waiting. “I was ready to lock in,” he said. Landon is a criminal
justice major with an eye on becoming a school resource officer. He doesn’t like Joe Biden and considers Kamala Harris to be a continuation of the current president’s administration. He admires Donald Trump’s business acumen, how the man came from outside politics, the way he tells things like they really are, his commitment to
securing the border. Landon thinks the economy was better when Trump was president. He also believes the former president is against war and would promote world peace. “Under Trump, no new wars,” he said. “With Biden? War starts in Ukraine. War starts in Israel.” Landon’s Christian faith guides his vote, too. He
believes God created people as either a man or a woman. And he’s strongly opposed to abortion. Landon’s grandmother gave birth to his father when she was a young teen. She aborted at least one pregnancy before she decided to keep the baby that would become Landon’s father. Now, he is grateful for his grandmother’s decision to keep her second pregnancy. “If a very brave young woman who was 13 or 14 years old at the time had made a decision to get another abortion,” he said, “I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you today.” He stood in line for an hour and 15 minutes before he finally entered the voting booth. Unsure of what he was doing, he called over poll workers a few times to double-check that he was filling his ballot out correctly.
SEE VOTERS, PAGE 6
‘We will be happy to stop it for them’ Future Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith threatens IDS over front page By Mia Hilkowitz
mhilkowi@iu.edu | @MiaHilkowitz
Indiana Lieutenant Governor-elect Micah Beckwith threatened the Indiana Daily Student and IU in an X post Nov. 12 over the IDS’ Nov. 7 front cover, which featured a photo illustration of President-elect Donald Trump accompanied by quotes from his former political allies. In the post, Beckwith labeled the page “elitist leftist propaganda” and said it “needs to stop or we will be happy to stop it for them.” Indiana voters elected
Mike Braun, a U.S. Senator, and Beckwith as the next governor and lieutenant governor Nov. 5. Beckwith is a Noblesville pastor and describes himself as a “Christian nationalist.” The state GOP selected Beckwith as its nominee for lieutenant governor over Julie McGuire, a State House representative who Braun endorsed for the role. A representative for Braun acknowledged an IDS request for a statement and said he will reach back out if he has any additional comment. A representative
for Beckwith's transition team did not respond to request for comment for this story by time of publication, but Beckwith participated in an interview with the IDS for a follow up story Nov. 13. In an October interview with Indiana Public Media, Beckwith said he thinks the state should monitor and control what is taught at IU and other public universities and that students and faculty feel they cannot express conservative perspectives at IU.
SEE BECKWITH, PAGE 4
LESLIE BONILLA MUÑIZ/INDIANA CAPITAL CHRONICLE
Indiana Lieutenant Governor-elect Micah Beckwith speaks on the debate stage Aug. 13, 2024. Beckwith threatened the Indiana Daily Student and IU in an X post Nov. 12 over the IDS’ Nov. 7 front cover, which featured a photo illustration of President-elect Donald Trump accompanied by quotes from his former political allies.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Indiana loses against Butler By Dalton James
jamesdm@iu.edu | @DaltonMJames
Looking to respond after its first loss of the season Nov. 7, Indiana women’s basketball failed to do so. It fell to Butler University 56-46 Wednesday inside Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. After the Bulldogs won the opening tipoff, the Hoosiers immediately forced a shot clock violation. Over the course of the opening quarter, Indiana went on a pair of quick 5-0 runs to take a 2-point lead after 10 minutes of play. Butler regained the lead in the opening stages of the second quarter, but it was short-lived as Indiana scored 4 consecutive points. The Hoosiers led by as many as 6 in the period but led just 28-26 at halftime. The Cream and Crimson displayed a balanced scoring attack in the first half as graduate student guard Sydney Parrish and junior guard Yarden Garzon each scored 7 points. Of the eight Hoosiers that played in the first 20 minutes, seven of them scored. After 13 turnovers in the first 20 minutes against Harvard University on Nov. 7, the Hoosiers finished with just nine in the first half against the Bulldogs. To open the second half, Indiana notched a pair of quick layups. But in the final 8:45 of the third quarter, the Hoosiers scored just 5 points –– junior guard Shay Ciezki’s first 3-pointer of the season and senior forward Karoline Striplin’s 2-point jumper. Butler outscored Indiana 15-9 in the period, as the latter accumulated six turnovers and shot just 33.3% from the field.
SEE BASKETBALL, PAGE 4
Why did Trump win? Local politicos weigh in By Andrew Miller
ami3@iu.edu | @andrew_mmiller
Donald Trump won the presidential election by much more than most experts thought he would. The results were apparent the night of Election Day and called the morning after. Many expected it would take days to know. The national results seeped into local and state politics. Trump won Indiana by 19%, improving the 16% margin he won by in 2020. That hurt state Democrats who had to deal with a much redder environment than they were hoping for and bolstered state Republicans via turnout. Where the country lands as a society is still up in the air. But local politicos have some ideas about why the results shaped up the way they did. Economic woes IU political
science
professor Steven Webster said the results could be partly explained through the economy and the simple fact that most Americans feel poorly about it. He said most people will recognize the economy’s health via their costlier grocery receipts, not the health of the stock market or figures regarding gross domestic product. That meant Democratic messaging highlighting positive numbers, Webster said, felt intangible. “Donald Trump was able to, in many ways, appeal to voters’ frustrations over the rise in prices,” he said. John Gregg, a former Democratic speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, said in a later interview with the Indiana Daily Student that Democrats likely focused too little on economic issues in favor of social issues. “I think the Democrats truly thought what was going
TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
President-elect Donald Trump campaigns addressing supporters Oct. 26, 2024, at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pennsylvania. Trump won the presidential election by much more than what most experts thought he would.
to deliver it this time was women and abortion,” Gregg said. “And that turned out not to be the case.” Gregg, who is also an adjunct professor at IU, said much of his own success as a Democrat in Indiana was due to focusing on these kitchen table issues and
recognizing where people were hurting. The U.S. economy is doing better than most of the world, by most indicators. Inflation trended lower and improved faster, unemployment recovered quicker and GDP growth has been solid. However, perceptions of
the economy have stayed negative among Americans. In NBC exit polls, about a third of voters rated the economy as “poor.” Trump won those voters by 77%. Among the 35% of voters who said the economy was “not so good,” Trump won by 10%. Gregg said Democrats simply weren’t able to reach the people hurt by higher prices. Harris’ “opportunity economy” just didn’t stick. Trump’s messaging felt the working class’s pain, Gregg said — and results show gains across the board with that demographic. Campaign blues It’s important to note most local politicos have said it wasn’t Harris’ fault she lost. Inflation hurt incumbent parties worldwide, including in elections in Botswana, India, South Africa and the United Kingdom. “You can look back and say, ‘would have, could have,
Bloomington's 7 Day Forecast
should have,’” Gregg said. “But I think she was, in the circumstances, a very good candidate.” Paul Helmke, former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne and current IU professor, said Biden should have dropped out much, much sooner. And he said the process for the party’s nomination should have been open, rather than handpicked. If she was competing with other Democrats, she would have gained more headlines and more recognition. “People would have a sense of who she was, what they liked or didn’t like about her,” Helmke said. Because she ran a campaign of only a few months against a man who has been in the political zeitgeist for nearly a decade, he said, it was much easier for Republicans to paint her however they wanted to.
SEE TRUMP, PAGE 4
SOURCE: JOSHUA ELMS | JMELMS@IU.EDU GRAPHICS BY: ALAYNA WILKENING
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