The 2020 Election has held many twists and turns. The Chimes gave live election updates throughout the night on Nov. 3. Along with updating Cap students on the state of the race, the Chimes also engaged students both before and during the race to get a better understanding of Capital University’s feelings about the 2020 race for the White House.
There was one common answer from nearly everyone we interviewed on the eve of the election; most every student we spoke to said that they just wanted this election cycle to be over with. Unfortunately, those students did not get the quick finish that they were all hoping for.
A lot of different issues were on students minds when they went to the polls this election cycle. According to our Twitter poll, the most important of those issues was racial tensions in America.
Interestingly enough, our small poll was consistent with Democrats across the country, many of which listed racial tensions as their top issue this year.
The Chimes also set out to cover the reactions from both Capital’s College Democrats and College Republicans. While no winner was called on election night, that did not deter students from coming out to watch parties on campus to show support for their candidate.
The Republican Watch Party
Capital University’s College Republicans held an election night watch party in Battelle room 103. The event began at 7 p.m.
Hosting the event was Secretary of College Republicans, Trinity Langbein. The President of College Republicans was busy doing other work for election night and no other executive members seemed to show. The event was rather small. The largest number of people present at one time never exceeded five people to our knowledge. College Republicans provided cupcakes and cookies for their party.
They started off by watching coverage by The Washington Post before switching to coverage by CNN. Capital is surprisingly more large than the watch party would suggest. That statement makes sense as there are currently 21 members of College Republicans according to engage.
Trinity spoke about the low turnout. Trinity says that the Republican/Conservative base says that some students fear being openly Republican or Conservative. She stated that some students lie to their friends saying they are libertarian or even democrats when in actuality they are undercover republicans. These students tend to only participate in virtual events, email chains or group chats as they are timid to meet in person.
The Chimes left the College Republicans watch party around 10 p.m. In total, about six people had come in and out of the watch party. Of those who were present, there seemed to be high hopes of four more years of Trump.
The Democrat Watch Party
The Capital University Democrats hosted a watch party in the Bridge of Learning. Over the course of the night, 50 people arrived at the event.
The party was stocked with blue balloons, Biden merch, and a cardboard cutout of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for people to take pictures with. For food, there was a selection of Jersey Mike sandwiches and Cheryl’s Cookies.
The watch party was organized by Aubri Jones, Ethan Roberts, Chance Conaway, Christos Ionnou, Rylee Ratliff, and Ethan Browning.
Just like the Republican watch party, CNN was the news source that was being watched throughout the night. Over the course of the event, 50 people arrived.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better event,” Browning said. “I think this is proof that the club is growing.”
As news came in that Ohio was projected to go to Donald Trump, shouts of frustrations rang throughout the room. Around that point, Browning stepped out into the hall for a quick break.
When asked about how close the election was, Browning said, “It is worrisome to see millions and millions of Americans still supporting the president that has failed us miserably.”
As the night came to a close and the final results still were not in, Browning reflected on the thoughts he had earlier that day.
“I’ll be honest, I woke up this morning and anticipated knowing who hit 270 by now,” Browning said. “It’s a long night. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad one.”
When asked what they would do if Trump won again, Aubri Jones said, “We sit with that, we assess, and we just continue to build from there. We’ll just continue to do what we’re doing with a smile on our faces.”
