This election cycle has arguably been the most unconventional race in American political history. A former first lady and a reality-star businessman were the two contenders for the highest political position in the U.S. There has never been this kind of duo matched off for the U.S. presidency.
According to The Washington Post’s election results, Trump won the presidential election with 290 electoral college votes; the presidential candidate only needs 270 electoral votes to be elected. Although Trump won the election, he did not receive endorsements from prominent Republican politicians throughout his campaign trail.
Even in the primary elections where the political parties pick the presidential candidate, the Republican Party was split on their decision to nominate Trump.
According to The Washington Post, President-elect Trump received the most votes of any Republican candidate historically in the 2016 primaries. He won approximately 13 million votes to be the Republican presidential front runner, the highest number of votes since 1952. In 2000, former president George W. Bush held the previous record for most votes for a Republican in the primaries, with approximately 11 million votes. There were some prominent Republican politicians who were hesitant to support president-elect Trump, but eventually endorsed him. An article that was published in The Atlantic listed the names of politicians that were hesitant to support Trump. Some of these politicians include: Speaker of the house Paul Ryan, former senate majority leader, Bob Dole and Washington rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
Although President-elect Trump won a record-breaking number for the most votes, he also received a record-breaking number of votes against him. According to The Washington Post, President-elect Trump received approximately 16 million votes against him in the Republican primaries. The Republican presidential candidate with the next highest votes against him was John McCain in 2008 with around 11 million votes.
Caleb Slater is a junior television-radio major at Ithaca College and is the director of programming of the IC Republicans Club. He is not a Trump supporter because he doesn’t believe Trump is consistent with his political views, since Trump has changed his voter registration multiple times.
“I’m trying to be optimistic about this, nobody thought he was going to get this far,” Slater said. “Nobody thought he was going to be president and nobody has a vote of confidence for him, I’m hoping we’re wrong again, and he does end up quote, ‘Mak[ing] America great again’.”
Throughout the recent presidential election, there were many prominent republicans that publicly opposed Trump. Some even went as far as announcing that they were going to vote for Secretary Clinton. An NBC article published Nov. 6 detailed the names of prominent republicans who announced that they were either opposing President-elect Trump or voting for Secretary Clinton.
The article lists 87 prominent Republicans that said they would not vote for President-elect Trump. Some of those Republicans include: Mitt Romney, former 2012 GOP nominee and former Massachusetts governor, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
The article also lists 77 republicans that said they would vote for Hillary Clinton. Some of those Republicans include: former Sec. of State, Colin Powell, former Conn. Rep. Chris Shays, former Virginia Sen. John Warner and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman. These are just some of the many names of Republicans who publicly announced they would vote for Trump.
Former New Jersey Gov., Whitman explained in her column on NJ.com why she wanted to vote for Clinton over President-elect Trump. She wrote:
“A Hillary presidency promises more of the Obama failed policies, but she would at least walk into the oval office ready to govern. She would be a steady hand on the nuclear code and she demonstrated a willingness to work across the aisle when she was in the Senate.”
On May 3, Sen. Graham sent a tweet out denouncing President-elect Trump: “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed and we will deserve it.”
Slater mentioned who he would have preferred to see in the val Office instead of President-elect Trump.
“If it was a Republican to win, I would’ve liked to see Rand Paul, Marco Rubio or John Kasich,” Slater said. “I see them as being able to work bipartisan. I see them as people who have delivered on the ideas they want to do, and that would set the example for the tone of where the country needs to go next.”
