College Democrats and Republicans at Pitt reflect on 2024 presidential election efforts

As the results trickle in from the 2024 presidential election, College Democrats at Pitt and College Republicans at Pitt reflect on their efforts throughout the election season. Both political organizations went into election night hoping for their preferred candidate to win.

“It’s always hard to say, but I’m very confident that Harris will win,” Will Allison, former president of College Democrats at Pitt and a 2024 graduate, said.

Kasey Brown, a junior economics and mathematics major, is the membership director and self-described “hype woman” of Pitt Dems. Brown is “feeling pretty good” about this election because of turnout and the “historic” number of on campus voters registered by Pitt Dems and other voter registration groups.

“Last time we got turnout numbers, we were only 100 off from 2020 turnout, so we are definitely gonna surpass that,” Brown said. “All other polling places have already surpassed the 2020 turnout.”

Brown also noticed more enthusiasm from voters for the 2024 election compared to the previous presidential election.

“In 2020, there was this sentiment of, ‘We have to come out and vote for Joe Biden,’” Brown said. “I feel like now there’s a sentiment of, ‘I am excited to vote for Kamala Harris.’ Young people are ready to go.”

Allison worked as a poll watcher outside Posvar Hall and considered his role passing out informational pamphlets on Democratic candidates “valuable.”

“I think there are people who come into the voting booth still making up their minds,” Allison said. “The literature has information on it. Might not convince everybody, but I do think it’s helpful to people who haven’t done their research for one reason or another.”

Laura Dvorkin, a senior politics and philosophy major and University liaison for Pitt Dems, was also a poll watcher outside Posvar Hall. Dvorkin said she saw working as a poll watcher on Election Day as a productive activity, as opposed to “scrolling Twitter.”

“I think it’s important to keep yourself busy today,” Dvorkin said. “There’s all sorts of phone banks, like text banks, a lot of things you can do.”

Dvorkin expressed optimism about the election, mentioning the amount of political engagement she has seen from other college students. 

“It’s been amazing to see the number of people who have shown up to Pitt Dems meetings, shown up to other orgs, been involved,” Dvorkin said. “There’s such a demand, and it’s so great to see how it’s cool to vote now — liking Kamala Harris is cool.”

Josh Minsky, a senior neuroscience major and president of College Republicans at Pitt, decided not to have an organization watch party for the presidential election since the results won’t be announced until later in the evening. Despite the delay, Minsky and other Republicans were “cautiously optimistic.”

“I think the presidential election is looking pretty good. I think we’ll get legitimate results,” Minsky said. “It’s looking good. He blew out Florida.”

Because many members of Pitt Republicans worked with the McCormick campaign, student members decided to spend their time on Tuesday night at the Downtown McCormick watch party.

Jesse Milston, a sophomore political science and history major at Pitt and secretary for the Pitt College Republicans, thinks that “If Trump wins the state, Dave will have a big shot of winning as well.”

“I think a lot of our people will prevail,” Milston said. “I think our congressional candidates are in a very good spot and I think they will win the delegation by the end of the night. I feel very confident in that. I feel cautiously optimistic, but it’s been a long time coming.”