By SAMUEL MORTEL
Tens of millions of Americans turned their attention to the first presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on September 10th, and it was every bit as entertaining as they hoped it would be.
According to Nielsen, over 67 million people tuned in to watch the first (and possibly only) presidential debate on Tuesday night. A good amount of this viewership came in the form of the sacred social pastime known as a watch party, where people decide to gather in a specific location, huddle around a screen, and communally experience a particular live event. Watch parties are commonly held for award shows, major sporting events, the series finale of a cult TV show, and (least excitingly) for political events like a debate or the night of an election. But on this occasion, people gathered all around the country to watch Harris and Trump duke it out on national television.
One of these watch parties was held in Terraza 7, a sort of live music venue/restaurant/bar in Jackson Heights, Queens. The party was hosted by the Working Families Party (WFP), a progressive third party with chapters across the country. Notable members of the party include local political figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman. The WFP, unlike other secondary political parties like the Libertarian or Green parties, mostly stick to small local elections and thus is not choosing to run a candidate for the upcoming presidential election, instead opting to endorse and encourage people to vote for the Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
At its most crowded, the venue held about 20-30 people crammed inside of the building; 40-60 eyeballs all fixated intently on the screen (not including the people who would pass in and out of the building and the people who were seated at an outside eating area, watching the same debate on a separate screen).This might be one of the most consequential moments in one the most consequential elections in modern history. It didn’t take long, however, for the tension to be knocked out of the air. The first big laugh of the night came 23 minutes into the debate when Trump was asked a question concerning his running mate, JD Vance and chose to answer as if he didn’t have much association with Vance at all. The answer was seen as sloppy, seemed to show that the debate was already getting under Trump’s skin, and set the tone for the rest of the night.
The WFP, being a left-wing party, was very clearly not fond of Donald Trump so they took great delight whenever they felt he had a bad moment, and this seemed to happen a lot over the course of the two hours in the debate. A large majority of polls, including polls specifically targeting uncommitted swing state voters, seemed to lean in favor of Harris as the winner of the debate. If you were one of the 67 million people watching Tuesday night, it’s not hard to see why. Overall, members of the Democratic party and the Harris campaign ended the night with their heads held high and their energy way up. It wasn’t all cheers and laughs for the more progressive members of the Working Families Party, however. The crowd, made up mostly of young people and people of color, around half of which being women, were very responsive when issues like abortion, climate change, and immigration came up. On the other hand, there was a noticeable shift in energy when certain topics like Israel and fracking came up, both of which being issues where Harris strayed to the center. There was a palpable tension in the air whenever issues like these came up, with the bar suddenly becoming quiet, the only sounds being the noise of the debate and the rumbling of the E train passing overhead. Nonetheless, a new topic would come along, Trump would give a bad answer and/or Harris would give a good one and the mood suddenly picked back up. And this elevated mood was where the debate left off. Both candidates delivered their closing statements, the crowd shared one last round of cheers and applause, and one of the WFP officials took a microphone and gave a brief statement to thank everyone who came to the event and amp up the crowd to vote in two months. One person in attendance that night was WFP co-director Jasmine Gripper, who stayed after the debate to have one-on-one talks with members of the audience, shake hands, give out t-shirts, and encourage people to put in a vote for Harris in November under the Working Families Party.
The debate put this new burst of energy into the air, but it seems like the Harris and Trump campaigns will have to coast off this energy until November, as Trump made it clear that he was not interested in a rematch almost as soon as the debate ended. As of now, he seems to be firmly stuck in this position, posting “THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” on his social media site TruthSocial earlier today, despite Harris being more than willing to have a second sparring match with Trump. Although Trump and Harris may not debate each other again, their running mates, Minnesota governor Tim Walz and Ohio senator JD Vance respectively, are set to have their own debate on October 1st. Walz has become an integral part of the Harris campaign since his selection for Vice President and Vance has been shown to be one of the most polarizing VP picks in decades. That debate will, no doubt, turn out to be its own spectacle.