In a lounge outside the library at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside on Tuesday night, more than two dozen students gathered over pizza, chips and lemonade to watch Senator JD Vance of Ohio and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota in the final debate of the presidential election.
As the debate neared its end, several of the students said their minds had not been changed about either candidate — or about whether they even planned to vote in November.
In the pivotal battleground of Wisconsin, where presidential elections can be won or lost by only tens of thousands of votes, students like these are intensely sought out, with campaigns and nonprofit groups urging them to register to vote and show up at the polls on Election Day.
The event on Tuesday night was sponsored by the Andrew Goodman Foundation, a nonprofit based in New York City that works to increase voting among young people.
Students were given a handout guiding them on ways to analyze the debate and a bingo card filled with phrases to cross out as the debate went on (among them: “fentanyl,” “tax cut” and “American people”). A television showing live fact-checking from the PolitiFact website was set up next to the debate screen.
But for some students, even the prospect of getting to vote in their first presidential election was not enough.
At the beginning of the debate, Karina Muñoz, 19, a sophomore from Bristol, Wis., sat down with her friends and her sister, Maribel. She favors reproductive and L.G.B.T.Q. rights, she said, but did not identify with a party or a candidate.
“I want to know if Walz has the same values as Kamala — I need to hear that,” she said, adding that she was encouraged by Mr. Walz’s down-to-earth persona and his background as a high-school teacher.
Her friend Owen Keller, 19, a freshman, said he was firmly on the Democratic side. He was just there to be with his friends, he said, and to learn more, though he did not believe the debate would change his mind. “I like to know what the candidates are thinking,” he said.
UW-Parkside is a small university in southeastern Wisconsin, with only 3,200 undergraduates, and it boasts a student body that is more diverse than the state’s general population. More than 35 percent of students are eligible for Pell Grants and nearly half are first-generation college students; many of the students commute from their family homes rather than live in the dorms.
Devin Laska, a freshman who planned to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, said she wasn’t sure how much a debate between vice-presidential candidates could sway anyone, this far into the election.
“I don’t think they matter as much as the presidential candidates,” she said. “They’re just there to balance them out.”
With most of the debate finished, Maribel Muñoz, 18, a freshman, said she had cringed at Mr. Vance’s statements on immigration, especially when the topic of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, was raised.
“I’m the granddaughter of two immigrants,” she said, but added that neither party held any appeal. “I’m not sure if I will vote.”
Grant Pitts, a senior who is president of the student government, stood up and surveyed the room during the last commercial break.
“This is long, huh?” he said, drawing groans of agreement.
The post At a Wisconsin Watch Party, the Debate Leaves Some Students Uninspired appeared first on New York Times.
