Window Campaigning
The 2024 presidential election is projected to be one of the closest races in memory. According to current polling data from RealClear Politics, former President Trump is up 0.4 percent nationally and 1 percent across key battleground states over Vice-President Harris. At St. Lawrence University, many students are passionate about who they want to win the election. As a result, some students have put signs supporting a candidate in their windows.
One of these students is Thomas Coleman ’25. “I wanted to put it up just to show support for the Harris campaign,” said Coleman. “I think it’s a very important election and St. Lawrence students should talk about it.” Coleman continued saying that he has quite a few friends in SLU Conservatives, “I wanted to put my opinion out there and encourage other people to share theirs.”
While Coleman has not had anyone come up to him to talk about his sign or the election, he says people recognize it. “I’m like oh the one with the Harris sign and they say oh I know where you are,” said Coleman on giving other students directions to his room. With this election being so divisive students may fear expressing their political opinions.
“The thought crossed my mind,” said Coleman when asked if he feared any backlash. “Maybe that’s just because I’m a cynic, but I wasn’t expecting too much.” Coleman acknowledged that students supporting Trump might fear more backlash on campus saying, “I see why they may fear more of a backlash, but I think freedom of speech should be protected.” “If you want to express what candidate you want to vote for, or the candidate you think other people should vote for, you’re more than welcome to do that.”
The initial idea for this article was to get perspectives from a student who had a Harris sign in their window and a student with a Trump sign in their window. However, I was unable to get an interview with a student with a Trump sign. To bring a conservative perspective I interviewed a student who identifies as a conservative despite them not having a Trump sign in his window.
This student chose to be identified under a pseudonym and will be identified as Michael Bennett. “If I was voting for Harris I would not fear as much putting up a Harris sticker, if I was voting for Trump, I would fear a lot more putting up a Trump sticker,” said Bennett. They felt their reputation could be damaged as a result. “People are less willing to express themselves politically if their opinions don’t reflect the popular orthodoxy.”
Despite their differences ultimately both Coleman and Bennett expressed that freedom of speech and expressing your opinion was important.