Students gather in Great Room to watch live presidential debate

By Tara Monastesse ’25

Editor-in-Chief

There were scarcely seats available in the Great Room on the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 10, as students gathered to watch a live screening of the presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. While the two candidates debated at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, a projection of the ABC News broadcast played for watch party attendees as they spectated from decorated tables under red, white and blue stage lighting.

The event was organized through a collaboration between the Division of Student Life, the Office of Student Involvement and the student-led Mount Holyoke College Democrats. MHC Votes!, a non-partisan student coalition dedicated to increasing voter engagement among students, also tabled at the event. The Mount Holyoke College Republicans student organization was not present at the event, as the group is no longer active on campus this academic year.

Emma Cranage ’25 and Rebecca Sandoval ’26, president and vice president of the MHC Democrats respectively, introduced the event shortly before the debate began at about 9 p.m.

“We've put watch parties together before, but never on such a scale,” Cranage said in an interview with Mount Holyoke News. “I really regret that we didn't until now. It was so wonderful to see everyone show up and just hear everyone's reactions. It was a really good way of bringing the student body together at such a complicated time.”

Overall, Cranage felt that the event “went really great.”

The Princeton Review recently named Mount Holyoke #1 for “Most Liberal Students” in its annual rankings last month, which are based on how students rate their schools. With this in mind, the general crowd reactions during the College’s debate watch party were largely unsurprising. Well-timed jabs from Harris typically earned applause and cheers, while comments from Trump were often met with laughter. However, not all of Harris’ statements were met with approval.

“I think some of Kamala's comments were a little disheartening to some people in our crowd, and I definitely understand that,” Sandoval said in an interview with Mount Holyoke News. Sandoval said that she found Harris’s stance on fracking to be disappointing, especially as Sandoval is herself a resident of Pennsylvania where the presence of fracking is controversial.

“When they brought up Pennsylvania, [Harris] brought up fracking. I think maybe she was going towards more of a centrist audience, but I don't know if she's going to win over that youth vote with the whole fracking thing,” Sandoval said.

“I think the watch party was very helpful because even though it seemed like people were more on the Democratic representative’s side, we still felt like there were some things that we disagreed on with the candidate,” Campbell Waters ’25, a student watch party attendee, said in an interview with Mount Holyoke News immediately following the debate. “ I think [it] is very important to show that we're not just mindlessly following someone.”

According to Cranage, the MHC Democrats are currently planning to host a vice presidential debate watch party on Oct. 1 in collaboration with the same groups as the presidential debate watch party. Planning is also underway for an on-campus election night watch party, to be held on Nov. 5. The Office of Student Involvement has stated that if the MHC Republicans student organization becomes once again active, they would “gladly include” the group as co-hosts of the vice presidential debate watch party.

“I think the watch party went amazing,” Sandoval said. “I went around talking to people quite a bit, and it was really cool to see people building the sense of community with their other peers on campus, talking about their states, where they're from, how they think the debate is going.”

“I think it’s only up from here,” she said.

Quill Nishi-Leonard ’27 contributed fact-checking.