On November 4, Pennsylvania will be holding elections for municipal and county positions. Additionally, the state will have three Democratic State Supreme Court justices up for a retention vote, meaning voters will select “yes” if they’d like the judge to remain, or “no” if they would like the seat to be vacant.

Even though the president, governor, and state legislators are not up for election this cycle, the retention vote can make a huge impact on the operations of the state’s courts and justice system for years to come.

UPUA, Penn State’s student government, hosted a debate between participating members of the Penn State College Republicans and the Penn State College Democrats.

The topics were immigration policy, National Guard deployments, and gerrymandering.

Both clubs had three members on stage, each spending ten minutes arguing their focused topic. The debate began with the topic of ICE and immigration policies.

Collin Jones argued for the GOP in favor of Donald Trump’s immigration approach, saying Biden’s immigration policies are to blame for many recent deaths in America. He spoke about the death of Laken Riley, said “one death is too much,” and Biden’s border policies made Americans less safe.

Sophia Rodriguez argued for the Democratic Party. She described many of the Trump Administration’s border policies as “inhumane” and mentioned that the Biden Administration requested billions of dollars through a congressional bill to better enforce illegal border crossings and improve deportations. The bill did not pass in Congress.

The debate then shifted to National Guard troop deployments in US cities, including the nation’s capital. Will Draper argued on behalf of the Democratic Party. He spoke about how Donald Trump had been sending the national guard to “bully” Democratic-governed cities, and pointed out that statistics show crime rates are generally lower in cities governed by Democratic lawmakers than Republican-governed cities.

He then asked Mirko Novosel, representing the Republicans, why Donald Trump said Washington, D.C. had rising crime levels even though there was no evidence to back up this claim, and local statistics said the opposite. Novosel responded, “I’ll give you that one,” which brought bipartisan laughter to the room.

Novosel talked about how the statistics don’t align with how people feel on the streets. He talked about how a young republican congressional intern was murdered in D.C. and how the national guard backing up local law enforcement will help deter more crime and make America as safe as possible. He credits Donald Trump for making this national crime cleanup possible.

The final topic began with Sylus Smith from the Democratic Party arguing that the reason why there is off-year gerrymandering is because Republicans are terrified of their own unpopularity for the upcoming midterms.

David Washabaugh VI, in contrast, argued that the Democratic Party is historically more responsible for gerrymandering as an issue, and it’s unavoidable in our democracy.

During the debate, both sides expressed a great amount of appreciation for each other’s clubs for their participation and respect towards each other. Sishir Katta, the Chief of Staff for the College Democrats, who was in attendance for the debate, said he’s happy to see people participating in political conversation on campus during such a stark political divide in this country.

“I was very happy with our attendance. I’m glad that we’re seeing a lot of people come over and just watching an exchange of ideas, I think that’s really important.”

And David Washabaugh VI, who debated gerrymandering for the College Republicans, said he loves how a debate like this can bring political unity to campus.

“All of these events are fantastic, but it’s just amazing to see all these organizations come together, to kind of find that common ground or disagree, but not be disagreeable, which I think is important.”

Election day is Nov. 4, but early mail-in voting has already begun. Out-of-state students are eligible to vote under their State College or University Park residence. For more information, students can visit the Penn State Votes website.