Interview with Keaton Smoot at the USU's Republican Club's party.
“Tom and Kerry, I am at the Taggart Student Center on Utah State University’s campus. Students are gathered here watching this election coverage on CNN. They have a big projector setup and they’re sitting around and enjoying this together, they’re debating. There is a lot of conversation going on, talking about the results as they come in. I spoke with the PR director of Utah State University’s College Republican Club here on campus. He says he’s actually been surprised by some of the results. He was surprised to see Donald Trump take North Carolina. Of course, he’s happy about it, he voted for Donald Trump, and other republicans. But he’s actually surprised also by Utah results as they’re coming in well for Donald Trump too, here in Utah.” -Aimee
“I think Utahans are pretty likely to vote straight-party. Maybe a little different than this year, but it looks like Trump’s going to win big in Utah, so probably.” -Keaton Smoot
“So how is it looking? And how are you feeling as things are coming in?” -Aimee
“It’s going down to the wire, Trump’s got Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, New Hampshire will be close. Clinton won Colorado, and so I don’t know, it’s going to be really, really close. We’ll see how Michigan will play out and a couple of those other states like Wisconsin.” -Keaton Smoot
“So you didn’t help put on this event, but you’re here, what do you think of it?” -Aimee
“We really like it. We like to be with a lot of the other students. It doesn’t matter really what party or anything. It’s good to be together and have differences with everyone. It’s a fun atmosphere.” -Keaton Smoot
“So you mentioned earlier that you feel that it’s a little bit more skewing to the left as far as those who are here, than to the right. Do you feel out of place here?” -Aimee
“A little bit, but we are having fun. We expect it, and that’s okay. You know, we just want everyone to participate. So it doesn’t bug me that much, but we are the minority here tonight.” -Keaton Smoot
“Just to give you a feel of the atmosphere here, students have their laptops out, they are watching the results on different websites as well as the TV screen. A few students I saw had maps set up, and they have crayons and they are coloring in the maps as the results come in, red or blue. They’re counting the elctorates themselves and keeping track. It’s really fun to see.” -Aimee
