For some college students in Denton, the upcoming election mostly settles along the typical political binary. A couple students who cited fears over Project 2025 said they plan to vote blue. Some who said they worry about the economy expect to cast a ballot for Republicans.
Two things united nearly all of them: They don’t feel their campuses are a “safe” place to talk politics, and politicians don’t seem very invested in the lives of students facing an economy they perceive to be slowly tightening and a world beset by crises that make hope feel somewhat foolish. And cancel culture has left its mark, they said.
But still, for these students who say they will cast a ballot in November, American politics feel messy and urgent.
The Denton Record-Chronicle connected with six UNT students at different events, including Eucharistic adoration at St. John Paul II University Parish, a community gathering at the Wesley Foundation and a rally in support of Palestinian rights.
A rocky political landscape
On a Wednesday night at St. John Paul II University Parish and Campus Ministry, between 60 and 75 college students stand in a circle. After adoration and confession, they’ve gathered for dinner. The sky outside is dark, and they sing “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent,” then the women and men take turns answering Sam Macaraeg, the parish’s head campus missionary, in a responsive reading. The parish center serves students from both the University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University.
Matthew Black is a UNT senior drawing and painting major who plans to vote early. He said he’s thinking about economics.
“For me, it’s always important to think about character,” Black said. “For this case, Donald Trump, like I remember his presidency and how easy it was for all of us. Gas was cheap, food was cheap. Everything just felt normal back then, and that’s what I want and I think what lot of people like myself want back.”
He lives with his parents, and his father, Robert, is the parish business manager. Matthew Black said housing costs and the price of essentials have made things harder for his family, though he has been contributing to his family’s expenses.
“Ever since [Joe] Biden came to office, that kind of complicated things,” he said. “And not only that, but things just kind of like gotten out of hand. So I really would really like for things to go back the way they were before.”
Another member of the parish, a 20-year-old junior who transferred to UNT to study business and psychology and asked not to be named, said her Catholic parents have urged her and her brother to vote according to their values.
“I’m not totally overwhelmed with politics, I guess you would say,” she said. “But I think there’s not enough focus on people in need. I look at homelessness and I think that there are a lot of people who need help, and there isn’t enough being done about it.”
A freshman who asked to be identified by his first name only, Jonathan, transferred to UNT from another college after serving in the Army. He said he thinks the U.S. is headed for disaster and that democracy is a failed experiment.
“You know, a lot of people really like [liberalism], but I really don’t like liberalism. I don’t like individuality. I’m very collectivist. ... I’m usually lumped in with Republicans,” he said. “I guess I would say have some left-leaning views, you know? Most people wouldn’t say this, but, yeah, I’m a nationalist. I believe in nationalism. I believe in a national identity. America first. It sounds weird. Most people my young age don’t really believe anything like.”
On a Thursday afternoon, about six UNT students sit around the lunch table at the Denton Wesley Foundation, the United Methodist Church’s outreach to university students. You can’t miss the foundation’s political commitments. A “Black Lives Matter” banner hangs next to a Progress Pride flag, which represents LGBTQ+ people, including those of color and transgender people.
Ezekiel Daniels, a freshman and computer science major, joined Ellie Stobaugh, a freshman media arts major, and Allie Driver, a sophomore journalism major, for a casual lunch. They said they’ll carry concerns about the war in Gaza, Project 2025, and what they called an erosion of human rights for women, non-white and LGBTQ+ Americans.
The students said they have reservations about talking politics on campus.
Black, Jonathan and the 20-year-old junior at St. John Paul II all said they consider UNT a liberal campus.
“Most definitely,” Black said. “I’d say that’s true.”
“I’m pretty sure afterward I’m going to smack my knee and be like, I shouldn’t have said that,” Jonathan said about sharing his views during the interview.
Driver said that while UNT is considered a liberal campus, she finds political conversation hard outside of the walls at the Wesley Foundation.
“I think it’s really unfortunate that it took a journalist coming in for us to be able to sit down and have a civil, respectful conversation,” she said.
Living with the culture wars
College students aren’t immune from the hot-button issues that have riven the country: immigration, abortion rights, climate change.
At the Catholic parish center, Black and Jonathan said they believe gender roles play an important role in family life and social order.
“The man is the head of the household and the woman — she just, you know, stays at home,” Jonathan said, after casting a glance at a group of women in the hall. “... I guess these are just personal anecdotes, but I see people who live a more traditional nuclear family lifestyle, like where the mother stays home and the father goes out earns the keep, they live better lives. They’re more socially adjusted.”
He said his military experience made him reconsider women’s inclusion in the infantry. He said he felt women slow units down and struggle with the physical demands of infantry service. He also said he found the women he served with to be bossy, entitled and sexually promiscuous.
Black said he abandoned social media because it’s become a place where the culture wars rage.
“Stuff like that, I get really bothered by it,” Black said. “So just for the sake of my mental health, I got rid of social media, like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat. I got off of it because the more I consume this culture that we’re in, I got more frustrated, and I got a lot of anxiety from it, so I ultimately just stay away from that because it’s just not worth it sometimes. Because sooner or later, all that stuff, it’s going to go away, like the hippies.”
Black said he doesn’t respond to the ideals of masculinity that come from online culture, which overlaps into far-right politics about gender roles. He warned against listening to misogynists like social media personality Andrew Tate, and added, “For that matter, don’t really listen to guys who are conservative.”
“What makes a man a man, I think, is that he is noble, he’s honest, he’s respectful,” Black said. “... Guys who are Catholics or any kind of Christian, they have a huge amount of respect for not only themselves, but for everyone around them. So I think those are the kind of men that we need to look up to, in a way, because they’re the ones that are trying to find their identity [through] Christ. In doing so could help us find our own identity with that.”
At the Wesley Foundation, Daniels said his vote will be strongly influenced by which candidates pledge to end the war in Gaza and promote Palestinian freedom, and which candidates oppose Project 2025, the conservative policy playbook produced by the Heritage Foundation.
“It just sounds like a lot of trying to push back minorities,” Daniels said. “And it almost feels like we’re going to reverse a lot of the changes we have made to get to the point where we are today. And it almost seems like they were kind of pushing for getting rid of democracy, which is kind of a crazy thing to do.”
Driver said abortion rights are heavy on her mind.
“That is a very important cause to me, making sure that that health care is available everywhere in the nation,” Driver said. “And just the taking away of that health care in red states is kind of scary to me.”
The United Methodist Church’s stance on abortion has evolved. Last May, the denomination voted to approve a petition affirming a right to abortion and pledging “solidarity with those who seek reproductive health care.” In its social principles, the denomination uses more cautious language about abortion, and supports alternatives to abortion for women facing unintended pregnancy.
Driver said she is also voting based on candidates’ support for confronting climate change — she wants politicians who will treat it as a serious reality — and candidates who champion the rights of people of color.
“I think that the U.S government is built upon a lot of white-presenting people, but a large portion of our nation is run by people of color, and I don’t think it is accurately representative of the people that we are as a society,” Driver said.
Stobaugh said she’s also interested in voting for candidates who have a plan to deal with climate change.
“I feel bad for all the people in Florida, having been hit with hurricane after hurricane after hurricane,” she said, adding that environmental and climate change is a big reason for such disasters.
“So if we had people in place that would help with climate change, in ways that are positive, it would be really good to have those people in office,” Stobaugh said.
Mideast crisis
UNT has seen ongoing demonstrations in support of Palestinians in the current Israel-Hamas war. This spring, the Palestine Solidarity Committee at UNT organized protests that criticized the university for not disclosing investments made through the UNT Foundation and for the support of Raytheon, a defense contractor that has a corporate relationship with UNT. Students also expressed anger with the Biden administration for supplying Israel with financial support and weapons.
During the week of the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 strike against Israel, Palestine Solidarity Committee members demonstrated and gathered aid for people in Gaza and the nearby regions where the war has expanded.
At an Oct. 7 protest, committee members led protesters in chanting, “We’ll remember in November.”
Talia Irshad, a senior marketing major and a leader in the Palestine Solidarity Committee at UNT, said students who support freedom for Palestinians will vote their values.
“The masses of people, the masses of students, the masses of people across the globe have made their message clear,” Irshad said.
She pointed to the coordinated action of the campus solidarity group and a global collective of political organizations that joined in a day of action for the entire Middle East.
“The masses of people made their message very clear,” Irshad said. “We demand divestment. We demand an end to the genocide and we demand an arms embargo. And if we don’t get it, as you heard today at our protest, in November, we’ll remember.”
The Denton Record-Chronicle asked UNT Hillel, a campus Jewish organization, for an interview earlier this month. The organization didn’t respond.
Driver, Stobaugh and Daniels said they want a permanent ceasefire in the Middle East and freedom for Palestinians. They said they are frustrated with media on the topic, and bristle that supporters of Israel conflate support for Palestinian liberation with support for Hamas and terrorism.
Daniels, who is openly queer, said he’s fatigued by supporters of Israel admonishing LGBTQ+ Americans who want Palestinians to have freedom and a homeland, with the common criticism that Muslim clerics and officials execute LGBTQ+ people.
“I think we have to show compassion. I think a big part of our religion is believing other people deserve forgiveness, even when they wouldn’t necessarily do the same for us,” he said. “And that’s why we can support causes like Gaza without questioning if they would ever support us, because it doesn’t matter what they think — it’s what we think is is right and what we know should be done about it.”
At the Catholic parish, Jonathan had a strong reaction to the issue of Israel and Palestinians. He objects to the U.S. giving aid to Israel.
“Israel is a — how should I say? — I don’t think it should exist,” he said. “Other than killing Palestinians, they also arm Azerbaijani soldiers that go out and kill Armenian Christians. And I hate when I come to the church and I see people who, you know, kind of support Israel. I’m like, hey, you know they’re supporting Muslims who, you know, kill your fellow Christians in drone strikes.”
No partisan home
Students said they don’t feel that the Republican and Democratic parties fit them. Black said he’ll vote for Trump, while Jonathan said he’ll probably write himself in for the presidency in protest. The three Methodist students said they plan to vote for Kamala Harris and other Democrats, although not without reservations.
“I will be voting blue in this election,” Driver said, “but I think it is really unfortunate — and this is something that is on a lot of college students’ mind — that we are forced, kind of, to ... support this two-party system.”
She said many voters, especially on the left, would prefer to vote for a third party but worry about splitting the vote, leading to a lot of frustration about the election.
“I have to compromise, because I would rather not see Project 2025 happen; I would rather not see climate change accelerate,” Driver said. “Do I have a lot of confidence that Kamala or the blue party will really do anything about it? Not really, unfortunately. But I feel like there’s no other option. And I think that is why so many people are not excited about this election season.
“I remember growing up being like, ‘I can’t wait to vote and get to go to the polls and be an adult!’ And now it’s my first election and I am begrudgingly planning a time to go to the polls and kind of settle.”