Many students at Montclair High School have become opinionated about the 2024 presidential election. This was considered a very important election to many, and students at MHS did not hold back when explaining how their families, location and issues shape their beliefs.
“I believe that Kamala Harris has better policies,” Lily Dembrow, a freshman at Montclair High School, said. “I think this way because she is going to save our country by keeping Roe vs. Wade, fix our border, and help reverse climate change.”
Dembrow goes on to explain that her family also shares these values, which plays a part in why she believes in the things she does. Many students going into high school are trying to find out who they are as a person, and politics plays a role for some students, she said.
Dembrow states that she believes this candidate believes women should have rights to their own bodies, and that their candidate believes climate change is a problem that they will try to solve.
“However, I’d be willing to be friends with someone who supports Donald Trump and has different political views. It would be interesting to hear their point of view,” Dembrow said. “I don’t agree with Trump in that he is trying to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants who are supposedly ‘destroying this country,’ which is completely false. I don’t think my views will change, though.”
Students seemed to have strong opinions on this particular topic. Montclair is a largely Democratic town, so it is expected that many students will have liberal values and beliefs. Another MHS freshman, Levi Fedderson has similar opinions to Dembrow’s. Fedderson said he also believes that Kamala Harris has better policies.
“Her policies aren’t my personal favorite, but I believe that in comparison to Trump and Vance, Harris’s policies are better,” Fedderson said. “My family also shares my political beliefs. The values that I share with my candidate are, I’m pro-choice, just like Harris, which is very important for my family. However I would be friends with a Trump supporter because not being friends with someone based on politics is stupid.”
Fedderson said he did not believe his political beliefs were going to change in the next four years.
“To me, Trump and his policies don’t seem to work, and I think that J.D Vance isn’t great either.”
