Despite Lack of Specifics, Most Young Voters in Reno and West Favored Harris in Contentious Debate
Jace Ouchida, Lizzie Ramirez and NH Sajjad interview young voters at watch parties and through social media to get their views on the divisive presidential debate.
From a local friends watch party, to simultaneously chatting with each other on social media to a campus event at the University of Nevada, Reno, first time and other young voters took the time to watch the September 10th debate being held in the decisive battleground state of Pennsylvania on ABC between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump ahead of Election Day on November 5th.
The debate bounced between abortion, immigration, foreign policy, race issues and climate change, and yet, according to many young viewers, failed to communicate concrete stances.
In one exchange, Trump admitted he has no healthcare plan, but “concepts of a plan.” Many viewers felt Harris was on the offensive, but that she also lacked specifics for what she would do if elected.
For many college-aged people, this election will be the first time they will be able to vote for president.
“I hope younger people actually tuned into this, as annoying as it is — it’s important and I think it showed how capable she is compared to him,” said Gady Conner, a student at the University of Nevada, Reno, who favors Harris.
On X and Instagram, the student demographic seemed overwhelmingly in favor of Harris, commenting on the split screen which showed her varied reactions to Trump comments, including his unconfirmed claims that migrants were eating pets of others in Springfield, Ohio.
“We checked with the city manager,” one of the moderators David Muir immediately said, explaining to viewers officials in Springfield, Ohio, had found no evidence of these allegations initially made by Trump’s running mate JD Vance.
“I thought they did okay with fact checking but it definitely could have been better. Trump would say something insane and the moderator man was like ‘actually no,’” said Fabiola Meza, a recent UNR graduate.
The debate did not provide real-time fact-checking and often resulted in candidates interrupting each other, an issue that muted mics did not completely solve. Meza, who graduated with an environmental science degree, was off put by the lack of specificity regarding each of the candidates’ stances.
“I wish Kamala was more specific about her policies, she just kept repeating herself and I wanted to know what she was going to do for climate change,” said Meza.
“It’s obvious that her strategy was emphasizing optimism and an ideated unity of the future of America, and that genuinely *happens* to trigger Donald Trump,” said Wen Lee, a Utah pre-law student.
“I would say that Donald Trump is incapable of answering any questions. He was consistently deflecting and going off on tangents. He didn’t seem to have a single policy plan that he was able to share coherently,” said Aiden Edwards, a physics student in Idaho. Trump made headlines earlier this week with “the weave,” boasting that his meandering speech patterns are a brilliant communication method.
“I thought their body language said A LOT during this debate,” said Cade Neilson, a college student in Arizona. As the candidates took the stage, Harris was seen moving quickly towards Trump to shake hands with Trump and wishing him luck.
In Reno, in a swing county of a swing state, in a dead heat in current polls, at the University of Nevada’s Center for Student Engagement, students shared laughs, applauses, and even groaning while the candidates gave their responses.
Students erupted laughing when Trump claimed Democrats support “killing” babies after birth as a form of abortion, repeating the words “execution” and “we’ll execute the baby.”
“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it is born,” the other ABC moderator Linsey Davis said, which caused the theater to fill with more laughter.
It wasn’t long before the laughing was replaced with groaning when the candidates were asked about the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
“I don’t think it was as strong as it could have been, because a lot of people my age care a lot about the Palestinians. And personally, to me, it felt like maybe she could have lost some of the younger voters because it felt like it was leaning a lot in Israel’s favor,” Nick Stewart, a junior at UNR said.
Harris stated Israel has the right to defend itself from Hamas but that Palestinian civilians also don’t deserve to die.
“It’s nothing new,” Edward Light, a sophomore said. “They asked her how she would actually get a ceasefire, and she dodged and didn’t say a single thing about it.”
Despite the seemingly disappointing response from Harris, Light and Stewart both said they will be voting for Harris this election — and so did many other young voters on hand for the watch party.
“I will vote for Kamala because of her stance on the LGBT community and the people of color. I am a person belonging to both of these groups. I think these issues are very important to keep my rights protected,” said Greyson Ramirez-Gartner, a freshman in music education.
“I will vote for Kamala Harris because I don’t rely on Trump. As a Black woman, I cannot let someone disrespect me, my entire family, and my friends. I cannot allow him to do that,” Debora Zotchi, a political science major added.
“I don’t care what she is. I don’t care,” Trump said, when asked about his remarks this summer questioning the identity of Harris, whose mom came to the United States from India at the age of 19, and whose dad was born in Jamaica.
Harris called it “a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently, over the course of his career, attempted to use race to divide the American people.”
The Harris team has asked for a second debate, which if Trump agrees, would come in addition to an already planned Oct. 1 debate between both major-party vice-presidential nominees, Tim Walz and Vance.
