PENNSYLVANIA, United States — A college professor says Republican former United States President Donald Trump’s ‘love him or hate him’ factor is a major influence on how voters choose the next president and the turnout for Tuesday’s election.

John Kincaid, Professor of Political Science, Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania was responding to a question posed by the Jamaica Observer when he made the comparison on Monday.

“One thing about Donald Trump is that he really mobilises voters on both sides. People love or hate Trump, so the people who hate Trump want to come out and the people who love Trump want to come out and vote, so he is a great mobiliser of voters,” Kincaid said.

“I think we are going to see probably a higher turnout than we saw in the last election in 2020,” he added.

However, he explained that the Democrat candidate, US Vice-President Kamala Harris’ support may be boosted by college student voters in Pennsylvania moving their vote from Democratic areas such as New York.

“I think the kind of polarisation that our system is experiencing is going to drive that turnout. A factor that might swing the election for Kamala Harris is [student] voters,” he said.

“Thousand of students including those attending Lafayette are from out of state and they are registering to vote in Pennsylvania, because we are a swing state their vote could make a difference here if they are from New York, which is going to go Democratic,” he added.

He claimed that the Democrats are more vulnerable this time around than they were in the 2020 polls because of the surge in inflation, reportedly the highest it has been going into an election since 2008.

“…That could swing this county in the other direction as a whole lot of these students come out and vote. The democrats are more vulnerable in this election than they were in 2020, because of inflation… there was no inflation under Trump,” he claimed.

— Kasey Williams