In the heat of the 2019 democratic debates, the College Democrats have been officially organized as a new club on campus.

Before, there was a small interest around the university’s student democrats to rival the larger and fairly popular, Republican Club. Holly Ludvigsen, junior criminal justice major and Stover scholar, is the de facto leader of the new democrats group. She has taken initiative this fall to create an official club represented for the first time at the activities fair on Sept. 25. The newly founded group has been having consistent gatherings and has assembled to watch the recent democratic debates.

“I think a lot of people in our generation just don’t really realize how actual policies affect them. So, trying to get people to realize that the people on this stage could actually, like, change their lives for the better [is what we’re doing],” Ludvigsen said.

Ludvigsen understands that the university consists of mostly conservative, right-learning individuals, and feels it is important that both parties watch these debates.

“I’ve spoken with T.J. DeNofrio, the leader of the [Republican Club], and he watches all the debates and he encourages people to,” Ludvigsen said. “I think that it’s important to watch and see if there’s any common ground between the two sides … America is so incredibly divided.”

Other college democrats have been actively tracking the debates and have been selecting their favorite candidates thus far.

Sara Byler, senior pre-law and business management double major, is one of the members of the new College Democrats and is currently favoring Mayor Pete Budigieg. She is very passionate about certain issues such as mass incarceration and racial reconciliation, while an advocate for healthcare.

“I think we tend to lean towards issues that affect us personally,” Byler said. “Which is why healthcare is a really big thing for me, because I don’t have healthcare right now.”

Sophomore sociology major and Bonner scholar, Christopher Battaglia, is an active democrat and a civically involved voter and labels himself as “very progressive.” Battaglia believes in issues relating to social justice and immigration, favoring former representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

“He’s a white man [Beto O’Rourke], but he’s very progressive in his thoughts on feminism and racism in America,” Battaglia said.

A common hope among democrats for the upcoming primary election is that they can elect someone who is capable of beating President Donald Trump in 2020 as he runs for his second term.
“Focusing on the actual issues is going to be a better pathway to winning the presidency than just going after Trump,” Ludvigsen said. “However, I do think electing someone who can beat Trump is important. We need to appeal to enough of those ‘middle ground,’ undecided voters. Those are the voters we lost in 2016, and that’s what got Trump in the White House.”

The importance of finding “common ground” with the opposition is difficult in these divided times, as Ludvigsen described.

“I have a very hard time straying away from what I believe just to get someone else out of office,” Byler said. “And while I would prefer to see a different president, I think if they would differ too far from my [ideals, morals and ethics], I think it would be just the same as the current president that we have. So, I don’t see there being much improvement if that’s the case.”

While there are more democrats on campus paying attention to these debates, there are also some conservative, right-leaning students who have taken the time to inform themselves on the democratic primary candidates. One of these, Student Senate President and Stover Scholar, Ryan Williams, favors entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.

“[There are many politicians] who are starting to shift way too far to the left of the spectrum,” Williams said. “[We need] someone who can reach to the Republicans who don’t like Trump, [along with] the democrat voters.”

Despite being left-leaning candidates, Gabbard and Yang appeal to Williams and have a more conservative, centrist influence than most of the other candidates. These two also have a more popular status among middle-ground voters who are unsure of re-electing Trump. Despite his faith in Gabbard and Yang, Williams predicts a Bernie Sanders victory in the primary election.

“You see Kamala Harris coming out in the second debate and addressing Trump in her introduction,” Ludvigsen said. “It is these two different types of mindsets, ‘Do we focus on the issues or do we focus on criticizing Trump?’ Most Americans are just tired of hearing about Trump.”

The next democratic debate will broadcast Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 8 p.m.