The Young Democrats and Young Republicans have faced off in one of what is to be several political debates. Around 60 MSMS students attended the first debate to hear the opinions of different candidates as presented by their fellow students. On the Republican team was Achintya Prasad, Ariel Williams and Louis Park and on the Democratic team was Mayukh Datta, Jacob Bozlee and Braeden Foldenauer. Young Independents members Dustin Dunaway, Kendall Palmer and Jhade Jordan moderated the event with President Shelbi Allen acting as time keeper.

The debate mainly focused on the issues of foreign policy, gun rights and government spending.

Prasad identifies himself as a moderate conservative that got interested in politics during the 2012 election. “I come from a family of people who worked extremely hard, and who came to America because of the opportunities granted to everyone; I think that type of spirit has died away recently and should be brought back to American society,” Prasad said.

Prasad was candid about the current race for the presidency, giving his support to one of the top five contenders. “I find John Kasich a very good candidate on paper, but more realistically, I would have to back Marco Rubio,” he said.

Datta was a debater for the Democrats who gained an interest in politics when he moved to America at the age of 10. “I was always interested in politics,” Datta said, “but coming to MSMS and seeing all of my friends’ knowledge on politics drove me to become really interested. My favorite candidate is Bernie Sanders.”

Both teams were given several questions before the debate by the Young Independents Club and were prepared to make the argument for their side’s point of view and defend against rebuttal not just from the opposing side but also from audience members who proposed questions to the teams; a new addition to the debates from last year.

Kendall Palmer, a moderator at the debate, described the process that the questions were chosen and plans for future debates, “Once we got the topics, we picked which one we wanted and researched. After that, we came up with questions based on the research and what we found that would be most interesting for the discussion. We sent these to our president, Shelbi Allen, who edited them and made them official.” Palmer continued, “It was our first time, so it was a little rough in some areas but I think now that we know how it goes, it’ll be a lot easier to organize next time. Our next debate is going to include all three political clubs in the actual debate, so the Independents won’t be moderating next time.”

The next debates are being organized by the political clubs and the dates will be announced in the future.