They laughed when Donald Trump was fact-checked, cheered when Kamala Harris landed a line of attack and snapped in solidarity when she delivered a searing rebuke of Trump’s fitness and candidacy for president.
The more than 300 University of Wisconsin-Madison students that packed the Union South Marquee theater to capacity Tuesday night displayed strong enthusiasm for Harris during a presidential debate watch party hosted by the Elections Research Center and the Tommy Thompson Center.
The crowd remained animated throughout the two-hour event, repeatedly producing loud denunciations whenever Trump floated unsubstantiated claims, particularly around abortion and immigration.
Over half a dozen students told The Daily Cardinal the debate didn’t change the way they planned to vote or the direction of the race in Wisconsin but overall felt that Harris did a much better job articulating her policies and vision.
“[Trump] didn't really do a good job handling the arguments or answering questions at all during the debate,” UW-Madison freshman Owen Brockett told the Cardinal. “It kind of affirmed that Donald Trump is the same candidate. Kamala Harris is still the same candidate. There's no real big shifts in the Democratic or Republican campaign.”
Brockett said the debate didn’t change the way he had been planning to vote and doubted it would significantly alter the “already pretty liberal” UW-Madison campus vote.
For some students who didn’t know much about Harris’s policies before the debate — the “Kamala curious,” in the words of Communication Arts Professor Allison Prasch — seeing Harris’s debate performance appealed to them.
“I was gonna vote for Kamala because I didn't want Trump to be president, but I did not feel strongly about her at all,” UW-Madison Junior Jack Mincheff told the Cardinal. “After this, that has significantly changed — [I'm planning on voting for her] much more.”
Mincheff said he initially thought Harris would employ a “laid-back [and] weave-the-punches” approach to the debate but came away with a strong impression of her capabilities.
“She was really in control the entire time, and her skills as a DA really came out,” Mincheff said.
But some students found Harris’s performance on the debate stage to be lacking in policy, particularly in her approach to Israel’s war in Gaza.
Mac, a UW-Madison freshman from the Middle East, said he had been “on the fence” on whether to vote for Harris before the debate but hearing her speak Tuesday night did little to endear her to him.
“I think if anything, this has made it even harder to decide whether or not I should be voting for her, because it really does feel like the best of two evils,” Mac told the Cardinal. “It does not seem like she will be changing her stance [on Palestine], and I can't see a benefit to voting for her over Trump, so I might just not vote for either.”
Mac acknowledged Harris had called for a ceasefire during the debate but underlined her involvement in the negotiations over the past 10 months has not resulted in a ceasefire.
Brockett added that Harris’ policy on Palestine was “pretty decisively against young people's general thoughts about Palestine.”
Members of the UW-Madison College Republicans were also in attendance during the debate, and representatives were visibly exasperated when Trump returned to unfounded claims, including his debunked assertions that he won the 2020 election and that Haitian immigrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
Benjamin Rothove, a UW-Madison sophomore and member of the College Republicans, said these comments were “not very helpful” and questioned whether Trump even prepared for the debate.
“Republicans deserve a leader who takes the job seriously,” Rothove told the Cardinal after the debate, adding that “Trump failed to articulate the danger [Harris] poses” and his debate performance makes the job of campaigning on his behalf more difficult. However, he said he wouldn’t change his vote.
“I went into the debate planning to vote for Trump, and I left the debate planning to vote for Trump," Rothove said, adding he would do everything in his power to ensure a Trump victory. Rothove acknowledged this was a minority opinion in the “liberal” Union South theater.
Students ask what comes next in post-debate Q&A
In the past two presidential elections, the results in Wisconsin, a key battleground state, and one that both campaigns have been eying closely, have come down to razor-thin victories by both Trump in 2016 and President Joe Biden in 2020.
Over 24,500 Badgers voted in the 2020 presidential election that elected the Biden-Harris administration, though warning signs flashed for Democrats when UW-Madison student wards voted ‘uninstructed’ at 4x the statewide rate to protest Biden’s Middle East policy during the Democratic primary.
During a post-debate Q&A with three UW-Madison professors, students questioned whether Harris would need to change her stance to win over students.
Political science professor Barry Burden said she wouldn’t need to and identified Harris as slightly to the left of Biden on her Israel policy.
“If you have more sympathy with the Gaza side than she's expressing, you're not going to go to Trump because he's even more favorable to Israel.” Burden said. “I think the threat of voters not sticking with her has sort of been tamped down by her replacing Biden and her having rhetoric that's just a little more balanced or friendly towards Gaza.”
Other students asked about the potential for a second debate —likely not happening, according to Burden — and Harris’s chances for victory in November.
Outside the theater, over 40 students registered to vote on paper, and several others were assisted with online registration, according to Kayley Bell, UW-Madison student and the city of Madison’s chief election inspector. Kayley noted voter registration will continue at the Red Gym Tuesdays until Oct. 15 and at a variety of pop-up locations around campus on Thursdays.
Students also watched the debate at Memorial Union.
Reporting contributed by College News Editor Noe Goldhaber
Gavin Escott is the campus news editor for the Daily Cardinal. He has covered protests, breaking news and written in-depth on Wisconsin politics and higher education. He is the former producer of the Cardinal Call podcast. Follow him on X at @gav_escott.
