On the first night of October, I joined the Harvard Democrats at the Harvard Kennedy School for their watch party of the 2024 Vice Presidential Debate. As the table gathered, the room filled with excitement for the candidate they affectionately called “Coach Walz.” Around twenty-five people lined the room, loud chatter filling the space as they waited for the debate to begin.
“Good evening. I’m Norah O’Donnell, and thank you for joining us…” The debate began, and the room fell silent. The stillness persisted for the first 20 minutes due to Governor Tim Walz’s slow start to the debate, with only slight interruptions from a few individual scoffs and eye rolls. The atmosphere shifted when Senator JD Vance was asked about his campaign and began describing “the largest mass deportation plan in American history.” Boos reverberated in response, and the silence disappeared for the rest of the evening.
Everyone frequently erupted in laughter in response to Walz’s comments. One notable occurrence was in response to Walz’s quip, “But look, we all want to solve this. Most of us want to solve this…” in reference to the “bipartisan immigration bill” that Senate Republicans blocked in May. A moment of shock and laughter ensued when Vance became frustrated and began fact-checking Walz’s statements.
The crowd had now grown to about 45 people and continued to scoff when Vance made a bold statement and laughed or nodded in approval as Walz spoke. A surprising turn of opinion was the genuine approval the room had for Vance’s stance on abortion, but many Harvard Democrats in the room expressed that his moderate stance in the debate didn’t reflect the policies he and the Trump administration have endorsed.
The energy shifted as the moderators brought up Jan. 6; Vance almost entirely avoided the question, topping the conversation by denying Trump’s 2020 presidential loss. The Democrats were bewildered and looked around in shock. These reactions to Vance were much harsher than to Walz’s mishaps, in which he stumbled over the fact that he said he was in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Walz was not, and the room fell silent as Walz had to admit his mistake.
As the debate ended with the closing statements, the room offered a standing ovation to Walz’s final remark: “I humbly ask for your vote on November 5th for Kamala Harris.”
A freshman who spoke anonymously attended the debate watch party to gauge the rapid reactions of the night. “My immediate reaction is that, obviously, it didn’t go as well as I had hoped it would in my wildest dream, but I feel all right about it.” When asked if she thought there was a winner in the debate, she declared, “Walz was a lot more direct in what he was talking about and getting at the issues that people care about.”
Harvard College Democrats co-presidents Victor Flores ’25 and Tova Kaplan ’26 agreed that the debate had some great and insightful conversations. “We actually had two folks on the debate stage willing to talk about policies,” Flores said.
Yet Flores and Kaplan noted significant flaws in JD Vance’s arguments. Flores thought it was “concerning” that Vance wouldn’t condemn Jan. 6.
Kaplan also pointed out that Vance used “demonizing, marginalizing language against immigrants and other populations.” Kaplan argued that Vance gave “a more moderate face to the rhetoric” but still elevated extreme views. “He was fully supporting the Trump agenda [and] Project 2025 ideas, and that does worry me.”
Both co-presidents expressed excitement for the club’s programming for the upcoming election. Kaplan plugged their forthcoming trip to New Hampshire and the upcoming weekend’s canvassing events. Their Instagram page, @harvardcollegedems, will continue to be populated with updates throughout the course of the semester.
The Harvard College Democrats debate watch party was an engaging community-building event for Harvard Democrats. With the conclusion of the final debate of the 2024 election season (for now), Harvard students on both sides of the aisle will begin gearing up for the highly anticipated election day.
Kalvin Frank ’28 (kfrank@college.harvard.edu) had a much easier time reporting than his counterpart at the GOP watch party.