The La Palma-Cerritos Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) started the 2025 year with plans for educational and entertaining meetings for members and guests.
On January 15, 2025, Branch members invited Jodi Balma, Professor of Political Science at Fullerton College as a guest speaker to discuss the results of the recent Presidential and State Elections in November of 2024 and educate members about possible future issues.
Professor Balma used a Power Point Presentation with many slides of statistics about different topics related to the Presidential election.
One slide showed that Donald Trump won 49.8%k, Kamala Harris won 48.01% of the popular vote, with the actual count of 77,301, 997 for Trump and 75, 017, 626 for Harris.
Balma said that statistics showed that Trump was seen as being strong on Foreign Policy, the Economy, and Immigration, and Harris was seen as being strong on the State of Democracy and Abortion.
She said that Trump was seen as having the ability to lead and can bring about change, and Harris showed she cared about people and the Right to Abortion.
She also commented and showed statistics about how podcasts influenced young men who did not have a college degree to vote for Trump, and young black men and Hispanics also voted more for Trump than Harris.
More women with college degrees voted for Harris because of the Abortion issue.
Some of the issues she was concerned about for the future were the growing U.S. debt in the trillions, Trump’s plans for making 100 Executive Orders, China’s Tik Tok, the ERA Amendment, and Education in the United States. She also showed the results of the California Ballot Measures and mentioned the upcoming Governor’s Race in 2026.
She reminded members, as she tells her students, to do research about candidates before voting for Governor in 2026.
Professor Balma is a dynamic speaker and is one of three teachers in Orange County who focus on California State and local government.
Branch Administrator Har