As November 5th falls further into the rearview mirror, people are processing the results. At around midnight Pacific Standard Time, Donald J. Trump was announced as the winner of the 2024 presidential election in a somewhat shocking turn of events. Kamala Harris’s optimistic campaign of “joy” wasn’t enough for the American people. There’s a lot of resentment toward the current Biden-Harris administration for issues such as the economic problems that have lingered since COVID-19, the border crisis, and foreign wars that have flared up during this time. Contrary to popular belief, it was not a close election, with Trump winning 312 electoral votes to Harris’s 226, including all the swing states. To many people’s surprise, he also won the popular vote by around 3 million votes, a feat he had not previously achieved.

“No, I wasn’t surprised by the outcome of the election,” said sophomore Jack Oenning when asked if he was surprised by the results. This is surprising since much of the mainstream media believed that Harris would come out on top.

As for an election that hasn’t received as much attention, the San Francisco mayoral race also had a somewhat surprising outcome. Among the four most well-known candidates—London Breed, Daniel Lurie, Aaron Peskin, and Mark Farrell—Daniel Lurie won in a relatively uncontested manner. London Breed was the only other candidate close to victory, while Aaron Peskin had a solid performance, and Mark Farrell seemed to have completely crashed out of the race early.

“It’s pretty surprising that Lurie won because it seemed like there were more active campaigns, but he had the most mail and advertising,” said junior Benny Moosbrugger when asked about his thoughts on the mayoral election.

In conclusion, election day was significant, and this particular one may have been surprising to some or a relief to others. Ultimately, many people are glad the stress and constant political talk are over, at least for a while.