Lafayette Votes hosted a presidential debate watch party on Tuesday, drawing around 100 attendees to view the moderated dispute between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
According to Chris Byrnes ‘26, the co-director of Lafayette Votes, the organization hosted the event to provide students with an engaging opportunity that could facilitate a better understanding of the upcoming election.
“Lafayette Votes will not tell you who to vote for, so watching these debates is integral in deciding who you want to vote for when November 5th comes,” Byrnes said.
Students gathered in the Marlo Room and sat around a large projected screen to view the debate, which ran from 9 p.m. to around 10:30 p.m. T-shirts, snacks and beverages were provided by Lafayette Votes.
Students’ reactions to the debate were mixed – but many were displeased with Trump’s performance.
“I had a hard time understanding Trump. He never really got to the point,” Ben Peterson ‘27 said.
“He started talking about migrant crime, which the moderator had said was just unfounded, faceless ramblings, and then he started talking about post-birth abortion and used made-up terms like ‘border-czar,'” he continued. “I didn’t really understand what he was going on about.”
Peterson acknowledged that “both candidates were kind of a little bit leisurely with answering questions.”
“I would say that Trump’s performance seemed to be based on hitting points with his supporters rather than answering the questions,” Rebekah Lazar ‘26 said.
Lazar expected the debate to get “personal quickly,” and that it “already was getting very personal” after just five minutes.
Students reacted more positively to Harris’s points during the debate.
“I feel that Harris was articulating herself very well and being very considerate with her answers,” Cate Soergel ‘27 said during a commercial break midway through the debate. “She is actually giving answers,”
Peterson felt the discourse implied that Harris’ stance on the future was much more positive than Trump’s.
“She sounded a lot more hopeful and optimistic about her prospective presidency than Trump did,” Peterson said about Harris, whereas he thought Trump “sounded very gloomy and doomed.”
Some students also felt their opinions of the candidates did not change by the end of the debate.
“I think that this election is so polarized, people have their opinions,” Victoria Hneleski ‘25 said. “I feel that my beliefs on each candidate were exemplified, and I think that is probably true for everybody.”
Jack Holinstat ‘27 entertained himself during the debate by playing a game of “Debate Bingo,” in which a bingo square is crossed off every time a candidate says something predictable or outrageous.
“I printed a couple of bingo boards for my friends to do because you can’t watch this debate without making fun of it,” Holinstat said.
Throughout the debate, students often yelled “bingo” and erupted in laughter.
To provide an incentive for students to watch the debate, several professors, including anthropology and sociology Professor Caroline Lee and English Lecturer Kathleen Parrish, gave extra credit to their students who attended the debate watch party.
Parrish said that attending the debate was a “great way” for students “to engage with the conversation, get more information about the candidates and their platforms and their proposals” and “engage with democracy and get students enthusiastic about voting.”
She assigned her advanced journalism course students to attend the debate as live fact-checkers.
“We had to consume what they were saying, which was really fast-paced at times, so that was difficult,” Vanessa Manning ’26 said of fact-checking the candidates for the class.
“It really got me more invested in the political climate today,” she said, also noting that fact-checking was “overall a little stressful” but “a good experience.”
The results of the fact-checking are posted on Lafayette’s English Department Instagram. Parrish plans to use the debate and media coverage of the debate in her classes to discuss bias in the media and how it leads to the construction of individual perceptions of each candidate.
“I think that being able to understand democracy, how it works and how the media works are absolutely fundamental skills in navigating life outside of college when you graduate,” she said.
The Lafayette Votes executive team felt positive about the outcome of the watch party.
“We are absolutely blown away by the number of people who attended the debate watch party, and I think everyone was respectful of one another,” said Chelsea Morrese, the founder of Lafayette Votes. “We are stunned, it was fabulous.”
“It was really great to see people come together and be engaged in politics,” Byrnes said.
Selma O’Malley ’26 contributed reporting.
