College Republicans, College Democrats and Longwood For Liberty conducted the annual mock debate on Nov. 6 in Jarman Auditorium, discussing issues such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program, military spending, banned countries, regulation of gun laws, threats from North Korea, the education system, health care and transgender people in the military.
President Reveley expressed appreciation for the annual mock debate before it began and for the millennial generation he believes gets an “undeserved” negative reputation. He also encouraged students to be involved with politics and go out and vote.
Each party started by giving their opening statement. Parties had one and a half minutes to respond to each question with a thirty second time limit for other parties to rebuttal the responses. Throughout the debate, students tweeted questions for the debaters. After the parties gave their closing statements, a few of the questions were selected to be asked.
At the end of the debate, the audience voted. Once the votes were counted, moderators MacKenzie Adamson and Brenda Pereira announced College Republicans as the winner. Sophomores Megan Garrett and TJ Wengert were the two students representing College Republicans. Garrett is the president of College Republicans and participated in the mock debate for her first time.
“I was very, very nervous (before the debate) because I hadn’t been on stage debating before but after it I feel a lot better because I had a large support system here,” said Garrett.
Juniors Joe Hyman and Chris Siefke were the debaters for College Democrats. Siefke participated in the debate for his first time.
“I hope that everybody just got a better sense of the political landscape right now and the current issues being faced by our country,” said Siefke.
Senior Alex McKesson and sophomore James Gallagher were the two students representing the libertarians. Longwood For Liberty Vice President Zach Wallen watched his peers debate from the audience. He was surprised by the voting results.
“Usually Republicans don’t do that well in colleges. I was surprised by it.. but I think they gave good answers,” said Wallen.
Siefke was impressed by how all three parties debated and did not see the winner of the debate as the most important aspect of the night.
“It’s really all in the spirit of debating and it doesn’t really necessarily matter who wins or who doesn’t,” said Siefke.
