The vice presidential debate between Sen. JD Vance and Gov. Tim Walz took place last Tuesday night, with many students gathering to watch what is the final debate scheduled for this election season.
Two of such student gatherings were held by College Democrats at MSU and Turning Point USA at MSU. Each organization held a debate watch party, much like they did for the most recent presidential debate.
College Democrats at MSU hosted over 100 attendees at Case Hall. Turning Point USA at MSU hosted eight attendees at Wonders Hall. Following Turning Point’s hosting of Ben Carson on campus shortly beforehand, members had taken some time off and ended up putting together the last-minute watch party.
Both of these organizations are political clubs on campus, with College Democrats at MSU promoting Democratic values, while Turning Point USA at MSU is a conservative-leaning organization that aims to promote traditional American values.
The debate focused heavily on policy, with the candidates showing a relatively restrained hostility toward one another and maintained a civil conversation.
Although two different environments, both watch parties had moments when the crowd reacted together.
At the Democrats’ watch party, when Vance introduced himself to viewers before answering the first question, the crowd began sighing and repeating the phrase “of course!” and “he didn’t even answer the question!” Laughter erupted when Vance’s microphone was muted.
At the Turning Point event, the crowd applauded after Vance responded sharply to the moderator for fact-checking his claims regarding Haitian immigrants in Ohio. Laughter filled the room when Walz was questioned on the discrepancy in the timing of his visit to Hong Kong. Some shouted expletives after Walz mentioned Taylor Swift in his closing remarks.
Freshman Natalie Westrate made bingo cards for her friend group to play at the Democrats’ watch party.
“We’ve got ‘universal laughter,’ so, it’s anything that someone says that causes everyone in the room to laugh,” Westrade described.
Other bingo card squares on Westrade’s sheet included someone getting visibly upset, an awkward handshake, interruptions and Walz correcting himself.
Turning Point member Emma Totzke shared her takeaways from the night’s events.
“It was a very strong debate compared to the presidential debate between Kamala and Trump. I think that one was a little more shaky,” Tozke said. “In tonight’s debate, they may not have agreed on everything, but they were able to find a common ground for at least some of the things that they were talking about.”
College Democrats at MSU’s club president Liam Richichi scored Walz’s debate performance a 9/10.
“Walz is such a kind guy that he doesn’t want to get a little aggressive. That’s the one thing I would like to see from him is just get a little bit more aggressive,” Richichi said. “He has all the right policy points and he’s saying all the right things. He’s just not attacking JD as much as I would personally prefer, but otherwise, I think he’s doing a really great job.”
For Turning Point president Samuel Lucido, the debate solidified for him what he already knew – where his vote will lie in November.
“Both candidates performed pretty well. I really like how JD Vance performed and that’s not just because I’m a fan of him,” Lucido said. “I think he really did help save his image as the VP candidate. And I think that’ll probably end up helping Trump’s campaign a lot.”
Last week’s debate is expected to be the last debate of election season before votes are cast on November 5.
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