By Rachel Hirschheimer
For The Diamondback
About 50 students gathered in Hoff Theater Tuesday night to watch vice presidential candidates Tim Kaine and Mike Pence square off in their only debate before the November election.
The University of Maryland College Republicans hosted the event along with the University of Maryland College Democrats, and other campus organizations. The groups also held a watch party during the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Junior Jacob Veitch, the chairman of the UMD College Republicans, said it’s important for students to watch the vice presidential debate in addition to the popular presidential debates. More than 300 students attended the presidential debate watch party last week.
“One person can’t govern the country on their own. I think that is a common misconception,” said Veitch, an international business and government and politics major. “The vice president plays an important role in terms of getting the president’s policy agenda done.”
The two vice presidential candidates traded attacks about the candidates at the top of their tickets during the hour-and-a-half long debate at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.
Indiana Gov. Pence criticized the Clinton Foundation and Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. Virginia Sen. Kaine recited a long list of controversial remarks Trump has made throughout the campaign, and attacked his foreign policy experience.
Freshman biochemistry major Aidan Bissell-Siders said Kaine beat Pence in the debate.
“Kaine is roasting Pence, but Pence doesn’t know it,” Bissell-Siders said. “Or rather Kaine is roasting Pence, but Pence will deny it basically because Pence denies what Trump, in my opinion, objectively said on the record.”
Bissell-Siders added that “there has been a bad job with covering relative records of Pence and Kaine as governors.” Kaine was inaugurated as Virginia’s governor in 2006.
Freshman finance major Chris Boretti disagreed, saying that Pence won the debate.
“Mike Pence absolutely mopped the floor,” he said. “Kaine was more one-dimensional compared to Pence. Pence had more depth and more thought to him.”
Freshman Nick Schmitz said that while the debate covered a wide variety of issues – from the candidates’ religious beliefs to terrorism – he wishes they had delved deeper into foreign policy. The candidates briefly discussed the situation in Syria and Trump’s praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
And though Schmitz is a Clinton supporter, he said he thought Pence won the debate.
“Mike Pence, based on his style, won the debate but certainly not his substance,” said the government and politics major.
Freshman Courtney Kaufman thought the debate was more informative than the one between Clinton and Trump.
“The other debates have been more about personalities and screaming and saying rude comments that don’t make any sense, like a reality show,” said Kaufman, a government and politics major. “This debate, however, was about the issues and it had a lot of substance.”
Veitch said that because the vice president could become president, it’s crucial for voters to understand what the running mates stand for.
“They serve an important role in balancing the main candidate as well,” he said.
Students had the chance to register to vote during the event, which was also hosted by Maryland Discourse, MaryPIRG, the Society of Professional Journalists, Students for Liberty and Young Americans for Liberty.
They’ve scheduled another watch party for the Oct. 19 debate.
