By Andy Dahn
NORMAL – Republicans vying for the presidency were in the spotlight during a nationally televised debate Wednesday night, and some ISU students took in the debate at a watch party on campus.
Students gathered to watch the debate, study reaction from the social media world and could even register to vote at the watch party. Department of Politics and Government Assistant Professor Dr. Carl Palmer was an organizer of the event. He said low voter turnout among college students may not be an issue during this upcoming election.
“We should see higher levels of turnout, particularly among young people,” Palmer said. “That’s because voting tends to be at higher rates during presidential elections, but that also depends on whether the candidates can appeal to young voters.”
ISU Junior Christian Casanova attended the watch party and said his interest in politics isn’t shared among all college students.
“They’re not tuned to politics as much as I am,” said Casanova. “That’s a big concern. They need to know what’s going on in the United States in regards to politics because these people make the rules for us.”
Casanova said things like offensive comments from Donald Trump and the Hillary Clinton e-mail fiasco have students paying more attention.
“I feel like students want to get more concerned with politics now,” Casanova said. “They want to feel that their country is not run by mediocre candidates such as Trump or Clinton.”
Palmer agreed and said that young people seem drawn to these entertaining candidates.
“Whether you like it or not, I think Donald Trump has done a lot of good things just by being Donald Trump,” said Palmer. “Even though he’s saying horrible things about immigrants and women, he’s at least getting people to pay more attention to politics.”
Palmer said another candidate that has generated a strong following among college students is Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders. While he added that he is hopeful, Palmer said it’s too early to guarantee large voter turnout among college students. The country will elect a new president in November of 2016.
Andy Dahn can be reached at [email protected].
