Anjali Dalal-Whelan / News Editor 

Although the California Primary will take place in around three months, some Toreros have already started making decisions on who they support for president in the 2024 election. The USD Vista conducted a poll on the social media app “Fizz,” which requires users to have a USD email account. The poll asked users, “If the 2024 presidential election was held today (12/3/23), who would you vote for?” With 2,920 votes cast, the top results were Donald Trump, who got 29% and “Other” which gained 27% of the vote as of Dec 5. 

Some USD students weighed in on who they were considering supporting in the election. 

USD sophomore Jordan Bayon commented that he wasn’t very interested in Democratic or Republican candidates, and said he was considering voting for a third-party candidate.

“Something I’ve been considering is looking at the independent option,” Bayon said. “I saw Cornel West was running which is interesting, because I’m interested in philosophy and that’s someone we’ve studied a little bit. So I feel like it’s interesting to see lesser-known political figures that are also in the running.”  

Other students said they weren’t sure who they were planning to support yet. USD first-year Siena Pugay expressed that she hadn’t chosen a candidate but explained what qualities she would look for when deciding who to support. 

“Something that is really important    to me is a leader’s morals and how they carry themselves and what their thoughts are on specific communities, especially communities that are underrepresented like minorities,” Pugay said. 

 Undecided votes still have time to make up their minds, the primary election is just under three months from now. The California primary election will occur on March 5, 2024, known as “Super Tuesday,” when 13 states nominate delegates to go to their party’s convention. Six Republicans are still running for the Republican nomination, while three are competing for the Democratic nomination.

The Republican National Convention (RNC) will take place July 15-18 of 2024 while the Democratic National Convention (DNC) will be Aug. 19-22, 2024. The national conventions determine the candidates who will be representing the Republican and Democratic parties for the presidential election.  

 Dr. Casey Dominguez, the chair of the USD Political Science department, leads the club USD Votes.  

“It is important that young people who are receiving a privileged liberal arts education participate in the democracy in which they live,” Dominguez explained.  The goal of USD Votes “is    to get every eligible USD student to exercise their right to vote.”

The Republican primary race has already been contentious. Three debates were hosted as of Dec. 3 by the RNC, with the fourth debate planned for Dec 6. Former President Donald Trump declined to attend all debates this year. In the third GOP debate, five Republican candidates met the qualifications to attend, which according to CNN requires candidates to register over 4% of support in polls and have a sufficient number of donors.

Donald Trump is the favored Republican candidate in the polls. Former President Trump is attempting to reclaim his presidency, while continuing to deny the results of the 2020 election and his defeat by Joe Biden. Trump has been indicted in four criminal cases this year, in charges related to classified documents, Jan. 6, 2021, Georgia election interference and hush money. According to his campaign website, if re-elected, Trump would focus on tax cuts, securing   the border and undoing changes    made by President Biden. 

The other five candidates who qualified for the third RNC debate have each amassed supporters in their opposition to Trump, but none have as large of a following as the former president, who according to a poll by FiveThirtyEight, has the support of 58.3% of surveyed Republican primary voters. Senator Tim Scott participated in the third debate but dropped out of the election days after. 

The following Republican candidates are listed in order of their popularity in FiveThirtyEight’s poll, as of Dec 4. 

Ron DeSantis     is the governor of Florida. According to the BBC, he is most known for fighting “culture wars” in Florida against private companies like Disney and attempting to ban discussion about sex and gender in schools.  

Nikki Haley is the former governor of South Carolina; she served as a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump’s presidency, where she butted heads with Chinese and Russian interests, who she called an “axis of evil.” 

Vivek Ramaswamy is a biotech entrepreneur, not a career politician. At 38 years old, he is the youngest candidate and a self-made billionaire, according to Forbes. Ramaswamy’s campaign focuses on combating “woke” ideology and “secular religions.” 

Chris Christie is the former governor of New Jersey; he ran in the 2016 GOP primary against Trump, and has since become a sharp critic of Trump’s election denial, calling him a “certified loser, a verified coward,” for skipping the first debate. 

The     Democratic     party has less competition  this primary election, with only three candidates having announced their candidacy. Primarily, this is because the incumbent President, Joe Biden, is eligible for a second term.

President Joe Biden has a strong lead among Democrat candidates. According to the FiveThirtyEight poll,  65% of surveyed Democrats back Biden for a second term. 

Marianne Williamson holds the support of  7% of polled Democrats. She is the author of spiritual and self-help books, and previously ran for president in 2020, arguing    for a more proactive “healthcare” system, instead of a “sickness-care” system. 

Dean Phillips is a representative from Minnesota. According to USA Today, he has moderate views and if elected would attempt to build bridges between the Democratic and Republican parties. 

According to the White House’s   website, since 1850 every president of the U.S. has come from either the Republican or Democratic party. However, this does not stop some candidates from running independently every election cycle, including: 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr is the son of former politician Robert F. Kennedy. He was previously running for the Democratic nomination, but in October announced he was running independently. RFK Jr was previously      banned from Instagram and YouTube for allegedly spreading misinformation about vaccines and COVID-19.

Cornel West is a left-wing professor of philosophy at Union Theological Seminary, he previously worked at Harvard and Princeton. According to the New York Times, he is known for his political activism and criticism of President Obama. 

Jill Stein is running for president for the third time. She is seeking the Green Party’s nomination. The Green Party is a left-wing party which values environmentalism and social justice according to the party’s website.  

While the party nominations will not be decided until next summer at the party conventions, the end of 2023 is an important time for candidates to begin their campaigns and for U.S. citizens to form their opinions before voting in  primary elections like California’s on March 5. 

USD Votes members teaching students how to register to vote at the Alcalá Bazaar.  Photo courtesy Iesha Brown