This week, three students travelled to New Hampshire to visit presidential candidate rallies. Junior Peter Tsipis and his older brother drove 45 minutes to Nashua to see Republican John Kasich. Senior Cole Jacobs, junior Jack Perryman and sophomore Addison Antico attended Republican Donald Trump’s rally.

“I chose to go because the rally was only 40 minutes away and I wanted to hear John Kasich up close,” Tsipis said. “I was surprised with how close I was to him when I got to hear him speak. His rallies let people get very close and personal which I really like in a candidate.”

According to Tsipis, Kasich talked about running a positive campaign. Tsipis likes Kasich because he does not pit the Republican Party against each other and “is not a loud spoken candidate who just attacks everyone.”

Kasich was Tsipis’ top candidate before the event. Tsipis said that “[the rally] did not influence my view that much,” but it did make Tsipis like Kasich a lot more.

“Something that stood out is how humble he was,” Tsipis said. “Not many candidates would take time out of their busy schedule to take a selfie with me.”

Perryman attended the Trump rally in Manchester, New Hampshire. He had previously gone to the Lowell, Massachusetts rally in January. Perryman noted that this rally was an election watch party and thus had a different atmosphere than that of January’s. Perryman was also surprised with the turnout of the January rally.

“The rally in January was full of protesters but to be honest that wasn’t surprising either,” Perryman said. “The fact that thousands of people were at the Massachusetts rally in January to support Trump in such a liberal state stood out to me.”

At the event, Trump discussed his positions on tax reform, immigration and Second Amendment rights. According to Perryman, Trump also mentioned how “over the top” the United States is in terms of political correctness.

A key point that stood out to Perryman was Trump’s approach to terrorism. Perryman believes that Islamic terrorism is a “very real threat” and that ISIS has become a huge problem.

“We need someone that will recognize the threat and actually do something about it,” Perryman said. “In Trump’s rally’s he talks about this and how tough he’ll be with ISIS.”

Perryman shares similar views with Trump and is an active volunteer for his campaign. He currently works with the Students for Trump organization and plans to go to future events.

Antico, a strong supporter of Trump, also went to the rally. According to Antico, his support for Trump is “not because of [his] parents” and that he decides for himself. Antico enjoyed the rally and said it made him more interested in politics.

He was surprised by the protesters’ “random shouting” at event. However, Antico was pleased with the attitude of the other attendees.

“The one thing that stood out for me was level of patriotism in there,” Antico said. “I’ve never gotten this many goose bumps in my life, it was really something for me to experience.”