The youth vote and participation in politics has statistically been low, even though it has been increasing slightly in past years.
But some support for any candidate can be seen on T-shirts, the bumpers of cars, hats and even bathroom stalls throughout and around campus.
Last weekend, employees at Brothers Bar & Grill in the Village found stickers that read, “Trump 2016, finally someone with balls. #ChirpChirp” plastered across the bathrooms, which isn’t something unusual, said Josh Morman, manager at Brothers.
“People put stickers [on the bathroom walls] all the time — stickers, gum, normal stuff, normal bar stuff,” Morman said. “It could have been [any candidate].”
Donald Trump, the real estate mogul, television personality, author and frontrunner in the Republican presidential primary has sparked the interest of conservatives on Ball State’s campus.
Trump is leading the race to the Republican nomination, ahead of Ted Cruz and John Kasich. He visited Indianapolis Wednesday to host a rally at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
Anthony Cook, a junior construction management major and member of the BSU College Republicans, said he went to the rally to support Trump and represent Ball State.
“I thought [the rally] was really good, it really resonated with me as an Indiana voter,” Cook said. “He spoke a lot about Governor Pence, Carrier [Corp.] and the things happening in our state, and that was really near and dear to me. I appreciated that.”
Cook supports Trump because he has a background in business.
“I think Trump is a very smart and successful business man,” Cook said. “Yes, he started with his ‘small’ loan of a million dollars, but it takes a smart person to take a million dollars and turn it into however much he’s turned it into.”
While Cook went to the rally to support Trump, others went to protest him. Freshman Hannah Aletheia, an actuarial science and mathematical economics major, said she was not necessarily protesting to send a message, but to show support for those in her life.
“I’m here because I wouldn’t be able to look myself in the mirror if the Trump campaign came through Indiana with the xenophobia, the racism, the Islamophobia, the fear-mongering and didn’t face any kind of resistance,” she said. “Not here. Not in my state. Not against me and my brothers and sisters.”
Since early in the election, Trump has talked about building a wall to help protect our border, as well as a plan to deport illegal immigrants. However, Cook said he doesn’t think it’s a feasible to do either of those.
“As a construction management major, there is not enough concrete masonry unit in the world to build the wall that he wants to build. It’s not possible,” Cook said. “I think the idea of throwing out all the immigrants in this country is not feasible, either. You can’t do that. It won’t happen.”
Monica Allman, a freshman history and music major, used to be a Marco Rubio supporter before he dropped out of the race. But she said she doesn’t support Trump because he isn’t a real conservative.
“He is rude and loud, and he gets very angry with his defense and his rebuttals in a lot of debates,” Allman said. “As a conservative, part of it is being able to have your own values that tell you that it’s not OK to do [that] and being able to understand other opinions but still be able to put your point across.”
Even though she doesn’t support Trump, she said she has some common ground with his view on the military because she was raised in a military family.
“I’m all for not cutting military spending, not necessarily increasing it but not cutting it either,” she said.
In Allman’s opinion, the rise of Trump is due to his anti-establishment status and his outspokenness. He is something different, but she has worries that there is a voting block backing him with racist views.
“I think one other big component to the reason he’s so popular is because ever since the Civil Rights [Movement], we have kind of pretended that racism was fixed, but it’s not,” Allman said. “A lot of his followers are racists, and I think that gives him a big hold.”
For some Trump supporters, this idea is what keeps them from speaking out about their support.
Michael Campton, a sophomore business major who is also part of the BSU College Republicans, does not share his political views in public because he’s a Trump supporter.
“I don’t wear my Donald Trump shirt. I choose not to wear it because I am afraid I am going to be called a name going to class,” Campton said. “I don’t put a sticker on my car. I don’t want my car to get keyed. I know that happens, which is why I don’t, and I keep quiet. Unfortunately, that is imposing on my free speech.”
Campton supports Trump because he is a businessman and wasn’t a politician before the presidential race. He is also tired of the Republican Party.
“[The Republican Party] has let many of us down, and we are craving for someone to turn the establishment upside down,” Campton said.
Even though Campton supports Trump, he still has some disagreements with some of his views related to abortion and access to nuclear weapons for countries that don’t have them.
He said tolerance and respect to others’ beliefs is important, and people should not assume that others are a certain way because they support a certain candidate.
“If Trump says something that might be considered racist or whatever, it does not mean that all Trump supporters agree with everything he says or does — including me,” Campton said.
Kelsey Jones, a first-year public relations graduate student, is a conservative who is undecided but is leaning toward Kasich. She said she’s worried that Trump will ruin the United States’ international relations.
“I think he will ruin our international relations and engage us in unnecessary conflicts or wars,” Jones said. “Even though I agree with him that our country is too concerned with being ‘politically correct,’ I don’t think he acts very presidential.”
She said Trump has damaged the Republican Party and has made it less credible “in a time when we especially need valid and strong candidates to run against the Democrats.”
Jones compared Trump’s appeal to voters with Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign — except on opposite sides of ideology.
“I think Trump has an appeal to many Americans because of his promise to ‘make America great again.’ I think many Americans are concerned with where our country is headed and are seeking drastic changes,” Jones said. “He has the ‘change’ factor that Obama had eight years ago even though it’s completely on the other end of the spectrum.”
The Indiana primary is May 3 and the 2016 Republican National Convention will be in Cleveland, Ohio, from July 18-21.
