Rice students turn out in force for midterm elections

Election night watch party follows record turnout at polls

It was 9 p.m. and many midterm election results across the country were still too close to call, but the Rice students gathered inside the Grand Hall cheered wildly every time Texas races flashed across television newscasts. Dozens of boxes of pizza and plates of chicken nuggets were already gone, but the students stayed in their seats, pecking away at homework assignments between glances back at the large screen where they saw political history unfold.

Rice students gathered inside the Grand Hall cheered wildly every time Texas races flashed across television newscasts. (Photos by Jeff Fitlow)

The #VoteTogether Election Day Watch Party was a bipartisan event that attracted students from across the political spectrum to the Rice Memorial Center Nov. 6. Many of them filtered in after casting their vote down the hall inside Miner Lounge. The Rice Thresher later reported that a record 753 students voted on Election Day, surpassing the 2016 count by 65; another 545 students voted early, bringing the total to 1,298 voters, or nearly one-third of the undergraduate population at Rice.

“These midterms mean a lot,” said Duncan College junior Meredith McCain, president and regional director of Civic Duty Rice, the local chapter of a nonpartisan student group that encourages political involvement at universities across the U.S. McCain helped organize the night’s event alongside Rice University Young Democrats, Rice University College Republicans and the Center for Civic Leadership.

“It will be a show of whether people approve of the job Trump is doing or not, since so many candidates are running on either anti-Trump or pro-Trump platforms,” McCain said before election results rolled in. “These midterms mean so much in terms of showing how the country has changed and reacted to the 2016 presidential elections and Trump’s presidency in general.”

The #VoteTogether Election Day Watch Party was a bipartisan event that attracted students from across the political spectrum to the Rice Memorial Center Nov. 6.

Sitting at a nearby table were Duncan sophomores Anthony Saliba and Thomas Keller. Keller, the secretary of Rice University College Republicans, spent two hours waiting in line to vote that morning. “I got there just when lines opened and barely made it to class at 9:25,” Keller said. “I’m very excited for Dan Crenshaw (a Republican congressional candidate). I hope he wins.”

Saliba, who is treasurer of the student Republican group, was eyeing a broader field. “I’m more interested in who controls the House overall,” he said, “so there’s no particular race that I’m interested in.”

“I think that pretty much everyone in the media in general would say that this is the most important election of all time,” Keller said. “But I think it’s an election that’s important, but nothing insane past that.”

Saliba nodded in agreement. “A lot of people have been saying it’s a referendum on Trump, but I don’t think so.”

McMurtry freshman Alyson Resnick voted for the first time that morning. With her laptop open, she alternated between discussing election results with her fellow Murts and studying for a Math 102 midterm on Thursday night.

“I was planning on staying back and studying, but then I was like, this happens every two years, so I might as well come out, because it’s important,” Resnick said. And while she isn’t typically involved in politics, recent acts of violence across the nation spurred her to action.

“Obviously with a lot of the shootings and bad things that have been happening around the country, it’s super important that our country makes a change,” Resnick said. “So normally I wouldn’t be as invested, but this time, being in Texas, with the Beto (O’Rourke vs. Ted Cruz) election — it’s such a big deal here — it was important for me this time to be involved.”

Fellow McMurtry freshman Aruni Areti was similarly disinterested in politics prior to the 2018 midterms. Now, he said, “I’m just making sure I’m staying in the loop.”

“Having the ability to stay here and see what’s going on and track all the stuff that’s going on I think is important, because you become more politically aware,” he said. “Creating this discussion and conversation is so important. Being here and being able to talk to Rice students who share certain ideas or support for political activism is really important. That’s why I’m here.”

The event ended at 10 p.m. after most races were settled. It was everything McCain and her Civic Duty cohort were hoping for.

“This is better than us just watching the election results roll in separately,” McCain said. “We want everyone to feel like they’re part of a community.

“Even though it’s stressful and people are freaking out every moment when they see the Texas map come up, I think it’s a lot more exciting if you’re with your friends and have people to react with and share your emotions with, no matter what the results are,” she said.