‘I Just Feel a General Sense of Dread’: Texas College Students React to Presidential Debate

(SAN MARCOS, Texas) — Texas State University students were left feeling uneasy about their candidate choices after watching the presidential debate on Sept. 10. 

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump took to the national stage for their first debate.

As November draws closer, some San Marcos students are mixed on whether they found the debate to be helpful in learning about both candidates’ policies. 

CJ Schemidt, 19, will be a first-time voter in the election. To her, the most important issues at stake are environmental policies and protections of rights for the LGBTQ+ community.

“I just feel a general sense of dread when it comes to thinking about the election,” Schemidt said.

Trump makes statements that tend to make headlines. But Schemidt says the debate allowed her to hear his opinions straight from his own mouth.

“I felt like she [Harris] actually answered the questions while Donald Trump was just making these crazy claims,” she said. “I think Kamala Harris was a lot more put together.” 

Oliver Barnfield, 19, also will be a first time voter. He says he was impressed by the way Harris presented herself at the debate.

“She was funny. She was charming, and she had really well thought out answers and points…” Barnfield said. “Trump, I don’t think he knows how to carry himself in this kind of situation, and I was really kind of disgusted by some of the stuff that he said and some of the ways that he acted.”

Susan Orotunde, 23, is a political science student at Texas State University. Orotunde is from Nigeria, so she is not able to vote in the upcoming election, but that didn’t stop her from tuning into the debate.

“I couldn’t say I got a very clear image of what each person’s plan was,” she said.We know who Donald Trump is and we know what he does and what he talks about…It seems like the vice president didn’t have to do much to probe him to start to spiral…But I also think she was spending a lot of time trying to trigger him when she could be explaining her policies and making herself shine better.” 

Orotunde added that the candidates’ avoidance of important questions felt insincere to the viewers.

“I am hopeful that in the future we would…vote more for younger people and try to reinstate the policies that we want to see by ourselves and put those mechanisms in place so that when the next election comes, we’re not…feeling like we’re stuck between choices that we don’t want to make.”