On a night when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and gained seats in the Senate, some undergraduates and many graduate students gathered in the Sanford Building’s Fleischman Commons for an election night watch party.
Scattered conversations competed in volume with a projection of CNN’s election coverage as viewers collected sushi, fruit salad and cheese and sat down to watch Anderson Cooper moderate CNN’s Election Center panel of experts. In rooms off the atrium, attendees could watch the news on Fox, C-Span and local station WUNC.
“The food sure seemed popular,” said junior George Pearkes, who helped plan the event. However, “undergraduate turnout was not very good. Student engagement [in the election] was in the tank this year. I think people don’t see a stake in the elections.”
Attendance at Sanford skewed largely toward graduate students with minimal undergraduate attendance. The atrium was fullest early on, while the food lasted, but by 9 p.m. the number of people dwindled to a handful, with some viewers scattered among the other rooms.
Few Blue Devils were still around to see former Dukie and Tea Party Republican Rand Paul, Medicine ’88, deliver his acceptance speech upon winning the Kentucky Senate race. As he spoke, the event organizers began taking down decorations and rearranging the tables and chairs.
Freshman Michael Elgart arrived at the Sanford watch party from the Duke Political Union viewing party in McClendon Tower, which he said was more crowded. He identifies as a libertarian and said he was excited by Paul’s victory.
“A popular movement against the government is always exciting for a libertarian,” he said. “Now there’s probably going to be a lot of government gridlock. As long as the government is stuck in gridlock, they can’t take away our rights—a restricted government is a good government.”
Senior Amanda Morrall, president of the Public Policy Studies Majors Union, said she was glad to see the students who came to the event but wished more undergraduates had participated.
“Our biggest goal was to make people understand how important this election is,” she said. “Students need to realize that they do have a voice and by voting for your representative or senator, you are voting for laws.”
Evan Krasomil was one of the Sanford graduate students in attendance. He described a high degree of political awareness among his peers.
“I feel like I know what’s going to happen to a certain extent,” he said. “But I’m interested in taking it in with other people who are interested in politics.”
Daniel Raimi, a first year master’s in public policy student, said that with a split Congress, one possible scenario is that “no one gets anything big done in the next two years.” But, he added, “politics has a way of doing exactly the opposite of what we think it’s going to do.”
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