Ever since my first tour during my junior year of high school in 2018, I’ve been looking forward to experiencing a primary election and debate at Saint Anselm College.
In my experiences at the college and outside of school these last few months, I’ve heard a constant refrain of “this isn’t normal” regarding this primary cycle.
This is further exemplified by nearly every student who worked during debate setup posting photos from the stage with the caption “the debate that never happened.” There were so many students, myself included, that were working towards something that slipped away suddenly.
While I am thankful for all of the opportunities I’ve had to be involved in this political cycle so far, I was disappointed that the debate I’d been looking forward to for over four years was canceled.
As a senior, it is disheartening to know that I’ll never experience the debate I’d hoped for during my time as a student. I hope that for all the future hawks this has not set a precedent that candidates don’t need to debate and rendered the classic Saint Anselm debate experience obsolete.
As discussed in the news article on pages 1 and 5 in this issue, students were working for ABC and WMUR for weeks leading up to the debate until it was suddenly canceled just two days before it was scheduled to take place. Thus, this ended a 36-year-long tradition of hosting presidential debates.
It was out of the news networks’ control, but it was a blow to many in the college community who were looking forward to the event.
Former President Donald Trump had rejected every other debate, so it was unsurprising that he did not confirm his place in the New Hampshire debate. However, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley’s rejection of the debate was what sent the event crumbling.
While Haley said that she didn’t want to debate Ron DeSantis, who dropped out of the race days later, because Trump was the only one she wanted to debate, I felt that she missed an opportunity to connect with New Hampshire voters.
She participated in a CNN town hall instead, which still allowed her to answer questions from Granite Staters. However, I think that the debate format is important to voters because it is a hallmark of the state primary cycle and it allows voters to compare and contrast candidates in real time.
Of course, the frontrunners in this election contribute to the unprecedented nature of this election. For all intents and purposes, we are seeing two incumbent presidents facing off against each other.
It is interesting to consider how the two candidates campaigned, or didn’t, in New Hampshire. In different ways, both candidates turned their noses up at the traditions of the first-in-the-nation primary.
Since the Democratic National Committee set South Carolina as the first primary in its calendar, President Biden did not even register to be on the New Hampshire ballot. He made zero campaign efforts in the state. Instead, state Democrats organized a write-in campaign on his behalf which secured his primary victory.
Meanwhile, Trump did campaign in the state, holding multiple rallies leading up to the primary election. New Hampshire was not an exception to his no-debate campaign approach. He stayed true to his style of appearing alone on stage, surrounded by supporters, and avoiding any confrontation with his opponents.
The last time President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump went head-to-head was 2020. A lot has changed since then, but unfortunately it looks like our choice of candidates are the same. In our “Question on the Quad” series, the Crier spoke with Saint Anselm students who were overall not thrilled at the prospect of the two presidents being the 2024 frontrunners (see page X).
A recent poll from the University of Massachusetts Amherst offers another glimpse into how Americans view a Biden-Trump rematch. 1,064 respondents took the poll, revealing that most voters do not support a 2020 repeat. 53% of respondents and 29% of Republicans said it would be better if Trump did not run. Similarly, 57% of respondents and 37% of Democrats said it would be better if Biden did not run.
While many voters may be dissatisfied at the idea of repeating the chaos of that year’s election, let’s just hope that no other historial, life-altering events that occurred that year will repeat themselves either.
Canceled debate raises questions of political future, college significance