The Tulane Hullabaloo recently conducted a survey among Tulane University students assessing opinions, attitudes and values surrounding the upcoming presidential election. Former President Donald Trump represents the Republican Party and Vice President Kamala Harris represents the Democratic Party.  

The survey received 415 responses from Tulane students. Here are the results.  

Of the 415 respondents, 333, or roughly 80%, indicated they were “very likely” to vote in the upcoming presidential election. We did not find evidence of an enthusiasm gap among Democratic and Republican voters, which may be due to the relatively small number of Republican voters in the sample. However, whereas 93% of both Democratic and Republican voters reported being “Very likely” to vote, only 78% of Independent voters reported the same.  

Most respondents primarily reside in Louisiana, California, New York and Texas. A total of 38 states were represented in the sample. 

Similarly, most respondents are registered to vote in Louisiana, California, New York and Texas. 

Among those 14 students from out of state who are registered to vote in Louisiana, the majority are from New York, Massachusetts and California. 78% of students plan on voting by mail or by absentee ballot.  

The survey data shows that most sampled respondents — 85% — are registered to vote as Democrat, while Republican and Independent voters constituted 9% and 26%, respectively. 

85% of Tulane students plan on voting for Harris, while 15% and 1.3% plan on voting for Trump and Stein, respectively. 1.1% of the students surveyed do not plan on voting in the election. 

Survey data shows that over half of the respondents voting for Trump or Harris felt “very good” about their decision. However, no respondents voting for Stein felt “very good;” 80% felt “somewhat good” or “neither good nor bad.” Although the number of Republican respondents was relatively small, an enthusiasm gap was evident. 

Students were able to write in non-listed issues that they considered most important in this year’s election, with “rights,” “policy,” “climate,” “democracy” and “abortion” recurring most frequently, among other issues. 

46% of Tulane Harris voters indicated that the most important issues they considered in the election were human rights and democracy, climate change and abortion. In contrast, 13.2% of Trump voters stated that those issues were important to them.   

For Tulane Trump voters, the issues they considered most important were the economy, foreign policy and immigration, making up 63% of the top issues. These three issues made up 16.2% of Harris voters' top issues.  

Overall, the survey results show that Tulane students generally follow national trends among young voters, though Harris’ advantage over Trump is far greater here. According to the Harvard Youth Poll, 64% of all voters ages 18-29 are likely to vote for Harris, compared to 32% for Trump. Additionally, 80% of Tulane students say they are very likely to vote, compared to 56% of young voters who say that they will “definitely” vote.  

The survey data is available for download here.