Students across the Claremont Colleges gathered on Tuesday, Nov. 3, to follow the results of the 2026 midterm elections at multiple watch parties. Students reflected on the importance of creating spaces for political debate and shared their experiences with voting.
The next day, on Wednesday, Nov. 4, Claremont McKenna College government professors Jack Pitney and Andrew Sinclair hosted a post-election debrief at the CMC Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum where they analyzed the results in which Democrats took control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Sinclair said the significance of this election “shapes the way we understand other elections from the past.”
Ahead of election night, students from battleground states voiced concerns about the various candidates running.
Students across the Claremont Colleges gathered on Tuesday, Nov. 3, to follow the results of the 2026 midterm elections at multiple watch parties. Students reflected on the importance of creating spaces for political debate and shared their experiences with voting.
On Wednesday, Nov. 4, Claremont McKenna College government professors Jack Pitney and Andrew Sinclair hosted a post-election debrief at the CMC Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum where they analyzed the results in which Democrats took control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Sinclair said the significance of this election “shapes the way we understand other elections from the past.”
”This was big not just because of the results, but because in some ways it was a test of different theories of politics,” Sinclair said. “The question was how responsive the electorate was going to be to the conditions that we observed … and the answer seems to be that it was even more responsive than I had expected.”
On Nov. 3, the Ath hosted an “Election Night at the Athenaeum” event in collaboration with the Open Academy and the Kravis Lab for Civic Leadership from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., offering a space for staff, faculty and students to enjoy dinner and watch election coverage.
Cillian Stanley CM ’30 and Sabi Yoon CM ’30, program assistants with the Open Academy, emceed the event.
“The thrust of the event was on conversations between students and between faculty,” Stanley said. “We wanted everyone to speak to each other and have some understanding of their different political positions.”
“The thrust of the event was on conversations between students and between faculty,” Cillian Stanley CM ’30 said. “We wanted everyone to speak to each other and have some understanding of their different political positions.”
Stephanie Muravchik, associate faculty director of the Open Academy and a CMC government professor, described the event as a “tradition.” She said the Open Academy specifically invites professors across departments and political values to encourage diverse dialogue.
The Claremont Colleges Political Union hosted its own watch party at The Motley Coffeehouse. Regan Cooper PO ’29, a club co-president and a Sports writer for TSL, said the event was unique because it was bipartisan and entirely student-led.
“We noticed that a lot of students don’t feel like there’s a real, bipartisan space for them to voice their opinions and even just hear other opinions without fear of being judged,” Cooper said.
The Claremont Colleges League of Women Voters (LVW) chapter hosted an election night watch party at Pomona College’s Carnegie Hall. Leading up to the election, the student group hosted voter registration drives and other events encouraging community members to vote.
LVW president Julia Scott PZ ’28 — who votes in Waterville, Maine — said the process of voting this year as a college student required some due diligence.
“You have to be proactive,” she said. “So for Maine, you have to request your ballot … and then it comes in the mail. I had a lot of time, but I had to make sure that I mailed it in time so it would get back by 8 p.m. on election night.”
5C Democrats spent most of this semester getting involved in local campaigns and phone banking for national races. The group also hosted a watch party at CMC’s Bauer Forum starting at 5 p.m.
“I’m genuinely stunned — I’m a huge elections nerd, and basically since 3 p.m. I’ve been stunned into silence,” Andrew Curtice PZ ’28, operations director of 5C Democrats, said during the watch party. “This is one of the most thorough rejections of a party that I think I’ve ever seen, and I think that we will ever see in our lifetime.”
Eli Jobrack Lundy CM ’27, 5C Democrats president, highlighted the importance of being together on election day. He also said he looks forward to next semester when the club will focus on community discussion.
The Claremont Colleges College Republicans have not hosted an election watch party since their founding. Acting president Shiv Parihar CM ’28 said that the club’s goals “are to raise support for candidates locally.”
“We’ve done campaigns for candidates but we don’t really do regular rally style meetings,” Parihar said.
Ahead of election night, students from battleground states voiced concerns about the various candidates running.
Leilynn Swain PO ’30, a first-time voter from Alaska, said the outcome of her state’s Senate race was personal to her because of the direct impact on her family.
“In my family we fish a lot, and then we might have fish two or three times a week — we don’t have to buy food and groceries because of that,” she said. Swain said she thinks candidate Dan Sullivan has profited over his investments in out-of-state farm fish farms.
“That really goes against the interest of all of southeast Alaska, and most of the area where Mary Peltola is from is also a huge fishing area, and so by doing that [Sullivan]’s really betrayed a lot of his rural constituents.”
Shivum Kalyanam CM ’29 said ahead of the election that he thought “culture-based politics” would impact the results of Ohio’s governor’s race, which he voted in. The race drew attention in recent weeks as Republican Vivek Ramaswamy ran a controversial ad against his opponent, Democrat Amy Acton.
The ad featured Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, denouncing her daughter as a liar. In 1978, Arthur lost custody of her children after her husband was indicted for raping Acton when Acton was 12 years old.
“Who am I going to vote for?” Kalyanam said. “The person who’s running this horrible attack ad, who clearly doesn’t connect with me, or the person who really shows what it’s like to be from Ohio and really represents the state better.”
Acton has since been elected as Ohio’s next governor.
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