On Sept. 26, a record of 84 million television viewers tuned in to watch the 2016 presidential debate featuring Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump, according to Nielsen.
CSUN students wanted to hear more about immigration and spoke about how the candidates missed major key points during the debate.
Hawa Coulibaly, communications major, found the debate more interesting than usual.
“I think that both the Democrats and Republicans have good values but they both disagree on how to make it [all] work,” Coulibaly said.
Trump and Hillary were not talking about issues at hand, according to Coulibaly.
“They haven’t talked about Immigration, [which] I thought they would have,” Caulibaly said.
Kalalah Harvey, a recreation tourist management major and Black Lives Matter supporter, wished issues such as immigration and racism would be mentioned. Harvey also said this presidential election is a joke.
“I actually never voted before, but I think Hillary is the best candidate right now,” Harvey said.
Trump’s ideas alone are Harvey’s major reasons to vote for Clinton. According to The L.A. Times, Trump’s particular critical ideas of undocumented Mexicans in the U.S. have harmed him politically among Latinos.
“Trump says everything [is] wrong, wishing Obama could be back,” Harvey said.
On the contrary, Kristian Calvo, a history major, supports stopping illegal immigration.
“It’s unfair to the people who legally migrated to this country,” Calvo said. “I usually always vote Democrat, but I’m not really for or against Trump.”
Calvo also said Trump and Hillary hit some key points, but at the same time missed some.
According to a poll on The L.A. Times based on 2,465 respondents, as of Sept. 19, voters were asked who they expect to win, regardless of which candidate they support.
Asking voters who they believe will win the election has often proved to reliably predict elections than asking how they plan to vote, according to the article.
According to The L.A. Times, by age, people of all ages think Clinton will win the election, however, a majority of voters 65 and older said they think Trump would win after the Republican convention. As education levels increase, voters predict Clinton will win. By income, voters with high income are slightly divided on which candidate they support, but by a significant margin, they expect Clinton will win. By race and ethnicity, no racial or ethnic group currently has a clear majority that believe Trump will win the election. By gender, a majority of both genders believe Clinton will win, but a majority of men support Trump.
Turnout was high with more than 56 million people in the 2016 primary season but short of record participation level set in 2008, according to Pew Research.
Additional reporting by Martin Torres.
