'We need to respect democracy': Students prepare for Trump's presidency

The 2025 Presidential Inauguration was held Monday, with Donald Trump returning as the 47th President of the U.S. 

Leading up to Election Day, UNC observed the presence of multiple political organizations, including the University chapters of Young Democrats and College Republicans. 

President of the UNC Young Democrats, Nick Willets, said the group is UNC’s largest political organization, with Young Democrats Vice President Dominique Lopez saying the group currently has over 700 members. 

President of the College Republicans Matthew Trott said that his organization is UNC’s oldest conservative club dedicated to advancing Republican causes on campus. 

This past semester, Trott said the College Republicans prepared for the election cycle by promoting their party through various actions like hosting local candidates and party officials, as well as holding voter registration drives, tabling in the Pit to hand out campaign literature, knocking door-to-door and volunteering at polling places. UNC Young Democrats held similar events and initiatives.

“We focused our efforts on getting UNC students registered to vote and to participate in the election,” Willets said. 

Although both groups spent last semester promoting their side’s political campaigns, former Vice President Kamala Harris ultimately lost to Trump.

“This was the first big, major campaign that I had participated in and had a large impact in,” Lopez said. “We worked hard for over a year on it, and I think that was what made it a lot harder, because it was so personal, and the affect [of the election] and what Kamala was running for were so close to a lot of our hearts.” 

Conversely, Trott said he was “ecstatic” about the results of Election Day on the federal level, but not so much on the state level, where Democratic candidates won significant local elections.  

“I'm just excited for inauguration day," Trott said. "That's how most of my friends and our members are. Everyone's just looking forward to it and hoping that some good policy will be passed after it."

Although some Democrats on campus are disappointed by the results of the presidential election, both Willets and Lopez said they respect the outcome. 

“We obviously believe one of the things that Vice President Harris ran her campaign on was protecting democracy, and a big part of that was due to the events of Jan. 6, four years ago, and the permanent toll that's taken on our democracy,” Willets said. “So, we obviously feel strongly that we need to respect democracy and as a party, I think Democrats nationally have been taking this approach.”

Since Inauguration Day fell on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a holiday with no classes at UNC, the Young Democrats and College Republicans did not plan to do anything as organizations. Lopez said they just settled with letting people do their own things and Trott, who attended in-person, predicted that some members might have a casual watch party.

Willets and Lopez said that there may be some unrest because there’s so many emotions regarding the results of the election and people may respond in different ways. However, Willets said he didn’t hear of anything nationally or on campus. 

Trott said he expected that there wouldn’t be any sort of mass celebration on Inauguration Day on campus. However, he said protests were a possibility.

“It would probably make quite a lot of sense for a couple of organizations to do protests then, just given how many people would be paying attention to what's going on that day.” Trott said. “So it wouldn't surprise me.” 

While anti-Trump protests were held nationally, no similar demonstrations occurred on UNC’s campus during the days before his inauguration, or the day of. 

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