Students gathered in the pub for a watch party as former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris participated in a televised debate Tuesday.
The event, hosted by the Center for Civic Engagement (CCE), was held to get students involved and interested in the political process, according to Dr. Nathan Shrader, politics professor and Co-Director of CCE.
“It is definitely important because the outcome of these elections, whether they are presidential elections or local elections that happen in everybody’s own hometown, directly affects you,” Shrader said.
A field organizer from the Harris campaign, Amelia Langer, attended the watch party and said student involvement is important.
“Everyone should be engaged with politics, whether local, state, or federal, but especially students because this determines our future, the trajectory of our country,” Langer said.
Students had varying reasons for attending the event.
“I wanted to mainly watch the debate to get more educated on both sides, because I don’t really know politics, but what I do know is that I’m a transgender man and a lot of the debates right now are going off of my rights,” said Jack Cote, a junior. “I wanted to see who’s fighting for my rights.”
This is the first year many NEC students are eligible to vote.
“I came to watch the debate tonight because this is my first year of voting and I wanted to become more educated and figure out who I should choose to vote for in this upcoming election in November,” said Winter Pierce, a first-year student.
First-year student Sumana Anand has been studying the election and said the upcoming election is important for young people.
“It is one of the most important elections of our lives,” Anand said. “Young voters play such an important influential role in the presidential process, and I think especially as a young voter myself I am figuring out the parties I am identifying with and what I want to do.”
