(Andrew Yuan • The Student Life)
Like tens of millions of people on Oct. 1, 5C students tuned in to watch Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz face off in the 2024 vice presidential debate. But many students in Claremont weren’t watching alone; instead, in both formal and informal gatherings, they came together to participate in watch parties, dinners and discussions with their peers.
Pomona’s watch party was co-hosted by the college’s Politics Department and the Claremont College League of Women Voters Club at Rose Hills Theatre. At CMC, the Kravis Lab for Civic Leadership hosted a CMC-exclusive watch party, providing dinner and a post-debate discussion at the McKenna Auditorium.
CBS News hosted the debate, which will be the sole vice presidential debate of the 2024 U.S. presidential election cycle. Vance and Walz faced off for over 90 minutes and answered an array of questions centering around issues such as foreign policy, abortion, gun violence, immigration and the 2020 presidential election results.
Mariana Ela CM ’28, who attended the CMC watch party, said that she thought JD Vance won the debate. She argued that some people viewed Vance as a “super hard-right Republican” prior to Tuesday night, but that their perceptions may have shifted.
“Even though he probably still is, he was kind of leaning towards the more moderate and more understanding side,” Ela said. “So I feel like [after the debate] some people are going to think Trump and JD Vance are more understanding.”
Ryan Kim CM ’28, who also attended the CMC event, said he found the debate to be influential.
“Walz did bring up a lot of good points, I was actually leaning more towards Kamala’s side,” Kim said. “I don’t have much of a political background, so it’s pretty new for me and I learned a lot from [the watch party].”
CMC event attendee Joel Alexander CM ’28 said that, while the debate didn’t shift his perspective too much, he thinks there is a chance that it will impact undecided voters in the election.
“I think it was a good experience and it really encouraged conversation,” Alexander said.
As CMC students watched the debate unfold in McKenna Auditorium, approximately 130 students gathered in Rose Hills Theatre for Pomona’s rendition.
Claremont League of Women Voters President Lexi Duffy PO ’26 said that the League had prepared for extra attendees after the presidential debate watch party hosted on Sept. 10 — also hosted at Rose Hills Theatre — exceeded capacity.
“We had so many more than we were expecting,“ Duffy said. “So now we’ve adapted our plans for the vice presidential watch party.”
Duffy said that the League’s goals for the vice presidential watch party remain the same as they did in the presidential debate.
“I think we wanted to create a community around such a monumental debate,” Duffy said. “It’s something that we were excited to see but also nervous about and [we] figured people might share that same sentiment.”
She added that the event was also a good opportunity to remind students to vote. On the night of the debate, the League placed a table devoted to voting information and registration near the entrance of the theater.
According to department chair and professor Tom Le, hosting nonpartisan debate watch parties is a responsibility rather than a goal of Pomona’s Politics Department,
“We should be hosting the presidential and vice presidential debate parties because of the core of some of the subjects that we teach, especially in the American politics subfield,” Le said. “Obviously in the United States presidential elections get more attention and more interest amongst the student body, so we want to meet that interest.”
The League opened its doors at 5:30 p.m., with the actual debate lasting from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.. Students were provided with bingo scorecards with comedic actions, topics and phrases that the candidates were expected to do during the debate — like defending or attacking Donald Trump and blaming the other political party for current issues.
Later in the night, Pomona Politics professors Sean Diament and Amanda Hollis-Brusky facilitated a post-debate discussion.
“We can say that Tim Walz did not meet expectations and JD Vance ‘won’ the debate; it came down to optics,” Diament said. “And Vance looked the part: he looked composed, and he seemed to be speaking to the voters a bit better. Walz was struggling over his own words.”
Diament said that the debate likely wouldn’t impact undecided voters, instead serving only to diminish fears about Vance’s capability.
In regards to student reactions during the watch party, Diament said that they did a good job of remaining unbiased.
“I think it speaks really well to [the students’] conscientiousness and reflectiveness and the social science analytical skills that the students have,” Diament said.
Diego Tamayo PZ ’25 attended the Pomona watch party and said that the popularity of the event showed how invested people at the 5Cs are.
“The fact that dozens upon dozens of people come to these watch parties is a major indicator that shows that people do wish to be involved,” Tamayo said. “They could be going to dinner, studying, doing other events or sleeping. Instead, they are here, and I think that speaks a lot.”
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