While informal crowds of students huddled around various TV screens and laptops across campus to view Tuesday’s presidential debate, more than 200 students packed into multiple watch parties in Whig Hall — the traditional home of politics on campus — with friends, pizza, and snacks. The debate marks the first major event on campus concerning the 2024 Presidential election.
Whig Party Chair Sophia Burnston ’27 and Cliosophic Society Chair Jaden Stewart ’26 collaborated across the partisan divide to provide students with a nonpartisan venue to watch the debate, a choice that both chairs noted in interviews with The Daily Princetonian. Whig typically represents students who align themselves with the political left, while Clio represents the right.
“I think it’s very important that we come together for events like this to show that we are stronger when we have conversation, when we are in discussion with one another,” Burnston said.
“A lot of current events have led to people not trusting each other, not having faith in each other, and it really ruins a lot of the relationships that I think are one of the best parts of college, and I think that this event was able to cut that in such a successful way,” Stewart said.
Whig-Clio Society President Daniel Shaw ’25 emphasized the importance of events like this in inspiring young people to vote. He noted that Whig-Clio collaborated to put on the watch party with Vote100, a voter turnout effort sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS).
“I think that this is a perfect example of a civic exercise. People come together to learn about both of the candidates. Whig-Clio is nonpartisan, so of course, we’re not here supporting any one of the candidates,” he added. “Our role here is just to get people out, excited about the election, excited to vote after learning about their choices.”
Students sat on pews, chairs, and the floor throughout the senate chamber’s two floors, with many doing homework as the debate played in the background. Others stared intently at the televisions displaying the debate, quietly taking in every policy position. While there was some side chatter, most onlookers remained relatively quiet, save for a few moments of collective reaction to particularly intense moments between the two candidates.
The experience downstairs was similar, though notably warmer in the more packed basement. As opposed to the neutral Whig-Clio watch party, the Princeton College Democrats event had a partisan flair. Bingo sheets with various anticipated events, including “Kamala laughs” and “Trump questions Harris’s race,” were passed around the room. The group erupted in cheers when the first box, Trump saying “I know nothing about Project 2025,” was checked off.
College Dems social chair Quentin Colon Roosevelt ’27 told the ‘Prince,’ “We’ve seen so much more enthusiasm since Biden dropped out of the race and was replaced with Harris … We had tons of people out canvassing last weekend; we’ve just seen a massive enthusiasm. So, we were like, we have to keep it going, right?”
At one point during the debate, when Donald Trump claimed that Americans wanted abortion rights to return to the states, one crowd member asked the room, “Did you guys want it?” to which attendees responded with an emphatic “No!”
Roosevelt commented on the energy in the room, which he likened to a football game.
“We have a team here, we have someone we’re backing, and we like it when she’s doing well,” Roosevelt said. “We’re a little squeamish when she says stuff that we think might be off, but yeah, I think it’s like essentially watching a sports event.”
Michelle Miao ’26, the president of College Dems, shared with the ‘Prince’ that she hoped to turn the energy for the debate into future political action with the group.
“We’re going to encourage people to join our GroupMe and to sign up for some of our events, whether it’s our meetings during the week on campus or some student-organized events like canvassing on the weekends,” she said.
Miao is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Whig-Clio also has ambitions of turning the enthusiasm surrounding the debate into future event turnout, according to Whig-Clio Vice President Emily Paulin ’25.
“Whig-Clio really hopes to be the center of election programming on campus this semester,” she said, emphasizing a scheduled lineup of political speakers that leads up to election day.
“We want to make sure that there is space for political discourse from both sides, and we really want to make sure that all of Princeton is voting,” she added.
Vitus Larrieu is a senior News writer and head Podcast editor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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