Quincy University held a mock debate in MacHugh Theatre between the Democratic side and the Republican side. The representatives for each side were Justin Coffey, PhD in history, as the Democratic representative and Neil Wright, PhD in political science, for the Republican side. The debate was a way to spread information to the people in attendance about the two presidential candidates in the upcoming election so they can better understand on who and what they are voting for.

“The debate with Doctor Wright was to really offer from the perspective of both the candidates and why you should vote for Kamala Harris or why you should vote for Donald Trump. We wanted talk about the issues and really let the students understand what’s at stake,” Coffey said.

Both Wright and Coffey were appointed to answer questions about issues in the world but tasked to answer those questions how the side they were representing would answer not how they actually believe about the situation. To start off the questions were asked by the moderators but most of the questions were asked by the people in attendance.

“I learned a lot about both sides. The sides of the Republican and Democratic side. I’m voting on Sunday, so this is like a really good opportunity for me to learn both sides of the argument and I learned a lot. It was just a good experience,” Mason Goeggel said.

Wright and Coffey were debating for two different sides, but they were arguing for the other side then what they back. The two might’ve not debated for the side that they backed but both sides answered questions and rebutted one another even though it was for the opposite side.

“What was kind of fun about it is we decided, you know we weren’t going to argue what we believed but were going to do the other side and make arguments that weren’t necessarily our own. Like for example, I represented Trump and I’m not a Trump supporter you know, but it was a good intellectual exercise even for me,” Wright said.

The event may have been a debate between the two sides, but it wasn’t about who won or who lost but it was about getting the information out there about the two candidates. The experience helped people in attendance look at issues in a different perspective and allowed them to gain more knowledge about future President whoever that might be.