The vice presidential debate may not be for another six months, but students aren’t waiting until next semester to get into the political mindset.
The Longwood University Politics Club and the Political Science department hosted a mock presidential debate in Blackwell Hall on Wednesday for their final and biggest event of the year. Students, faculty and their families and even President Reveley, packed the hall to hear students various issues that have been featured in the debates so far. Representing the College Republicans were Chairwoman Malina Foldesi, Stephen Alexander and Canon Cochran, while club president Joe Hyman, Danny Bartle and Danny Janousek represented the College Democrats. The moderators were Alex Magid, vice president of the Pre-Law Society, Christy Tagg and Sara Nelson, president and secretary of the Politics Club, respectively.
The debate featured many real topics and issues, such as: the threat of ISIS, military spending, illegal immigration, the raising of minimum wage, education reform, gun rights, the defunding of and Planned Parenthood. Tensions certainly rose among the both teams, especially during the debate over warring with other nations, the Black Lives Matter movement and Planned Parenthood (which received murmurs from the crowd at the first mention of the organization).
“Us and the Young Republicans have some very different views on some very sensitive issues, but part of the beauty of the American system is that we can talk about those differences in a public setting and be able to debate them,” Hyman stated following the debate, “So when we have those contentious moments, I love them because it shows that America is such a great country to be able to express those values and to be able to argue with people. There are countries in the world where that cannot happen, and those moments really represent to me the core of American democracy and the ability to discuss those things.”
The audience was also able to get involved by live-tweeting their questions to the Politics Club’s twitter account, two of which, were used as questions for the debate.
To finish off the mock debate, there was a mock election, in which members of the audience voted for the team they thought presented the better argument. As the votes were being tallied, the members of both debate teams were asked which candidate they supported in the presidential race. All three members of the College Democrats stated that Bernie Sanders was their candidate. The three College Republicans varied: Cochran stated that he was hoping for Paul Ryan, Foldesi had been an avid Marc Rubio supporter, and Alexander was for Ted Cruz.
While the teams were in disagreement throughout the most of the night, there was one issue that both teams agreed on: none of them support Donald Trump in the presidential race.
Once the votes were counted, the mock election showed that the audience was essentially split amongst the two parties, Republicans received 76 votes edging out the Democrat by just 10 votes.
After the debate, Foldesi stated, “I hope that they (the audience) got a little bit of a political knowledge about each party, understand a little more about the parties, but I also hope that that will lead them to get more involved in politics.”
Hyman added, “I hope that they can realize that politics is more than just Donald Trump raving at the TV. I hope they realize that their vote matters and… that they see that the American political process is something unique, something special and something that needs to be cherished and that if they step up and take the initiative that every vote can make a difference.”
Due to the massive response and attendance, Magid and Tagg both stated that the Politics Club hopes to turn the mock debate into an annual event.
*Correction: April 14, 3:18 p.m. - The Rotunda misreported who College Republican Canon Cochran supported; previously, the article said he supported Rand Paul. We have made change to reflect he would like to "draft Paul Ryan" after Marco Rubio suspended his campaign.
