Swarthmore College is overwhelmingly liberal and regarded to be a politically active campus. Placed on a hill and considerably wealthier than the average population, the college can be considered insulated from broader political currents shaping Pennsylvania and the nation. However, the 2024 election made the stakes hard to ignore. Signs covered campus, campaign ads flooded students’ screens, and students got their first taste of the region’s politics. Swarthmore voted heavily for Vice President Kamala Harris, but the surrounding area paints a more complex picture.
The surrounding region played a critical role in the 2024 election, and is a useful tool for understanding national trends, as well as the local community. Professor Syon Bhanot, who studies behavioral economics and public policy, explained that “we in academia are totally out of touch with non-academic people.”
The 2024 election gave some students an opportunity to participate in local and national politics for the first time. For much of the fall semester, online ads and signs all over campus made the election inescapable.
Students who had a chance to get off campus saw lawns decorated with battling Trump and Harris signs. Pennsylvania’s status as the most likely swing state to decide the election led campaigns up and down the ballot to spend over $1 billion on TV ads before the election, the only state that crossed this margin, according to AdImpact. The Philadelphia area made up the highest percentage in the state of this spending, with campaigns spending a total of $296 million on TV ads in our area.
In the 2024 election, President Donald Trump won a higher percentage of votes than he did in 2020 in every state except Washington. Pennsylvania shifted 1.5% towards Trump. This trend is visible in the precinct that contains Swarthmore’s uphill dorms (Willets, Mertz, Wharton, etc.), which shifted 1.4% towards Trump in 2024.
Shift from 2020 to 2024 in the uphill precinct. Photo credit NYTimes.
The precinct containing the downhill dorms (PPR, MPPR, and ML) did not follow the state’s trend, with Harris winning 2.1% more votes than President Joe Biden won in 2020.
Shift from 2020 to 2024 in the downhill precinct. Photo credit NYTimes.
Still, Harris won 91% of the vote in the uphill precinct and 86% in the downhill precinct.
2024 vote total in the uphill and downhill precincts. Photo credit NYTimes.
Despite the shift in some of the Borough’s precincts, Swarthmore Borough remains overwhelmingly Democratic. Just north of campus, the election was much closer. Harris and Trump nearly tied in many of the precincts extending north until the Main Line. To the south, Chester — a majority Black city — voted overwhelmingly for Harris.
2024 vote total in Chester. Photo credit NYTimes.
Immediately after the election, some articles explained Trump’s win in PA with his gains among Black and brown men. According to exit polls, Trump received more votes from Black voters in this election than any Republican presidential candidate in the past 48 years. Professor Daniel Laurison, a sociologist who studies class inequality and American politics, cautions against the “urge to blame or credit particular groups.” Trump’s increased support among Black and brown voters drew attention, but these shifts were relatively small. Harris won a large majority of Black Americans’ votes (86%) and a majority of Hispanic Americans’ votes (51%). Chester, which is 72% Black, voted heavily for Harris. And while some Chester precincts shifted marginally, many did not.
Shift from 2020 to 2024 in Chester. Photo credit NYTimes.
The shifts from 2020 to 2024 are incredibly small, which gives a look at how close the margin of this election was. Some precincts in our area shifted right, and some shifted left. While the results may have felt shocking to many students, this election was decided by a very small margin in Pennsylvania and all the other swing states.
Laurison pointed out that “we tend to overinterpret very small shifts in political behavior as indicating very big things about the country.” Delaware County did shift 3% towards Trump, but plenty of precincts did not follow this trend. Laurison said that the country is only “marginally more into Trump in November 2024 than it was in November 2020.” Bhanot says that “most people voted for who they voted for last time.” While the election may have been shaped more by continuity than disruption, its impacts may still be significant.
Political Science Professor Warren Snead, who studies judicial politics, points out that the Trump administration has moved away from traditional Republicanism during and after this election. According to him, “appointees for this term may be more pro-Trump than his appointees in the first Trump term who were more traditionally Republican.” This election and Trump’s appointees will have long-term implications. Snead explains that “even if Trump is defeated in the next presidential election, his appointments could still shape American law for years after he’s left political power.”
Laurison observes that many voters feel that politics is “just entertainment, just elites fighting with each other.” Bhanot notes that in the Swarthmore bubble, many find it difficult to understand low-information voters who have “other stuff to deal with and are not as engaged with politics as the median person on this campus.” Perhaps this description explains Delaware County’s election results best. One pre-election poll found that 69% of Pennsylvania voters were concerned about jobs, wages, and the economy. In another poll of Pennsylvania voters, 18% of voters named inflation and economic growth as their most important issue. Bhanot explains that “incumbents were crushed everywhere. Clearly, the masses at large are just not happy with post-COVID policy in a variety of ways.”
In Chester, a ten-minute drive from Swarthmore, 30% of people are experiencing poverty, much higher than the national average. Harris received above 90% of votes in most Chester precincts and no lower than 79% of votes. Still, Laurison notes that “if you live in a lot of places in this country where there’s a lot of poverty, very little changes in the level of deprivation that you’re experiencing, regardless of who’s president.”
Breaking the Bubble: What the 2024 Election Revealed about Swarthmore’s Political Landscape
Avi Berman
Swarthmore College is overwhelmingly liberal, and regarded to be a politically active campus. Placed on a hill and considerably wealthier than the average population, the college can be considered insulated from broader political currents shaping Pennsylvania and the nation. However, the 2024 election made the stakes hard to ignore. Signs covered campus, campaign ads flooded students’ screens, and students got their first taste of the region’s politics. Swarthmore voted heavily for Vice President Kamala Harris, but the surrounding area paints a more complex picture.
The surrounding region played a critical role in the 2024 election, and is a useful tool for understanding national trends, as well as the local community. Professor Syon Bhanot, who studies behavioral economics and public policy, explained that “we in academia are totally out of touch with non-academic people.”
The 2024 election gave some students an opportunity to participate in local and national politics for the first time. For much of the fall semester, online ads and signs all over campus made the election inescapable.
Students who had a chance to get off campus saw lawns decorated with battling Trump and Harris signs. Pennsylvania’s status as the most likely swing state to decide the election led campaigns up and down the ballot to spend over $1 billion on TV ads before the election, the only state that crossed this margin, according to AdImpact. The Philadelphia area made up the highest percentage in the state of this spending, with campaigns spending a total of $296 million on TV ads in our area.
In the 2024 election, President Donald Trump won a higher percentage of votes than he did in 2020 in every state except Washington. Pennsylvania shifted 1.5% towards Trump. This trend is visible in the precinct that contains Swarthmore’s uphill dorms (Willets, Mertz, Wharton, etc.), which shifted 1.4% towards Trump in 2024.
The precinct containing the downhill dorms (PPR, MPPR, and ML) did not follow the state’s trend, with Harris winning 2.1% more votes than President Joe Biden won in 2020.
Still, Harris won 91% of the vote in the uphill precinct and 86% in the downhill precinct.
Despite the shift in some of the Borough’s precincts, Swarthmore Borough remains overwhelmingly Democratic. Just north of campus, the election was much closer. Harris and Trump nearly tied in many of the precincts extending north until the Main Line. To the south, Chester — a majority Black city — voted overwhelmingly for Harris.
Immediately after the election, some articles explained Trump’s win in PA with his gains among Black and brown men. According to exit polls, Trump received more votes from Black voters in this election than any Republican presidential candidate in the past 48 years. Professor Daniel Laurison, a sociologist who studies class inequality and American politics, cautions against the “urge to blame or credit particular groups.” Trump’s increased support among Black and brown voters drew attention, but these shifts were relatively small. Harris won a large majority of Black Americans’ votes (86%) and a majority of Hispanic Americans’ votes (51%). Chester, which is 72% Black, voted heavily for Harris. And while some Chester precincts shifted marginally, many did not.
The shifts from 2020 to 2024 are incredibly small, which gives a look at how close the margin of this election was. Some precincts in our area shifted right, and some shifted left. While the results may have felt shocking to many students, this election was decided by a very small margin in Pennsylvania and all the other swing states.
Laurison pointed out that “we tend to overinterpret very small shifts in political behavior as indicating very big things about the country.” Delaware County did shift 3% towards Trump, but plenty of precincts did not follow this trend. Laurison said that the country is only “marginally more into Trump in November 2024 than it was in November 2020.” Bhanot says that “most people voted for who they voted for last time.” While the election may have been shaped more by continuity than disruption, its impacts may still be significant.
Political Science Professor Warren Snead, who studies judicial politics, points out that the Trump administration has moved away from traditional Republicanism during and after this election. According to him, “appointees for this term may be more pro-Trump than his appointees in the first Trump term who were more traditionally Republican.” This election and Trump’s appointees will have long-term implications. Snead explains that “even if Trump is defeated in the next presidential election, his appointments could still shape American law for years after he’s left political power.”
Laurison observes that many voters feel that politics is “just entertainment, just elites fighting with each other.” Bhanot notes that in the Swarthmore bubble, many find it difficult to understand low-information voters who have “other stuff to deal with and are not as engaged with politics as the median person on this campus.” Perhaps this description explains Delaware County’s election results best. One pre-election poll found that 69% of Pennsylvania voters were concerned about jobs, wages, and the economy. In another poll of Pennsylvania voters, 18% of voters named inflation and economic growth as their most important issue. Bhanot explains that “incumbents were crushed everywhere. Clearly, the masses at large are just not happy with post-COVID policy in a variety of ways.”In Chester, a ten-minute drive from Swarthmore, 30% of people are experiencing poverty, much higher than the national average. Harris received above 90% of votes in most Chester precincts and no lower than 79% of votes. Still, Laurison notes that “if you live in a lot of places in this country where there’s a lot of poverty, very little changes in the level of deprivation that you’re experiencing, regardless of who’s president.”
