BridgeUSA hosted the first on-campus debate between Tulane University’s Turning Point USA and College Democrats chapters on Wednesday. Students of varying political ideologies discussed United States policy and welfare.
For two hours, three executive board members from College Democrats – junior Nathan Jones, sophomore Ashton Layh and sophomore Mekhi Stennis – and three representatives of Turning Point USA – first-year TPUSA President Noam Gracia, sophomore Hudson Weinfeld and junior Ethan Nevid – discussed a selection of hot-button topics in front of a Richardson lecture hall packed with students. The debate was moderated by Jake Pullman, the sophomore vice president of BridgeUSA.
College Democrats has been active on Tulane’s campus since 2014 and has grown to encompass several hundred members. The organization’s mission is to “further the causes of the Democratic Party of equality and justice.”
Turning Point USA announced its formal approval as a student organization on Jan. 12 of this year, currently having 128 active members, according to Gracia. In the words of Gracia, its president, its goal is “to provide a safe space for conservative students, but also all students to be able to express their ideas, their opinions and their values in a civil and respectful way.”
The organization’s revival at Tulane is part of a broader pattern of growth across the country following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, last September.
Over the course of the debate, BridgeUSA showed four claims to guide discussion, with the first presented as whether current immigration enforcement activities have gone too far.
Both sides generally agreed that Trump’s approach to immigration has exceeded acceptable limits.
“It’s lawless, it’s ridiculous, and it’s not who we ought to be as a country … [immigration enforcement] has become an act of racial profiling,” president of College Democrats Nathan Jones said.
“I think the illegal immigration problem is mainly that immigration, as we currently have it, is too hard to do … there are easier ways to have immigrants come to this country legally, but if you did not come to this country legally, you have to go,” Ethan Nevid of TPUSA said.
The debate moved on to discuss international politics, inciting debate with a new claim: the US-Israel joint military action in Iran is justified.
“I think the US and Israel, two democracies, are justified in trying to free [the Iranian people],” Weinfeld of Turning Point said.
“If you have an opportunity to kill a guy who is doing basically every single act of terrorism in the Middle East, it is good to take that shot,” Nevin said.
The three representatives from College Democrats fundamentally disagreed with this notion.
“I don’t think there’s any victory in sight … the Iranian people are no closer to freedom, and the Middle East is no closer to peace,” Jones said. “Trump has withdrawn money from democracy promoting initiatives around the world that seem like a higher return on investment, like USAID.”
The conversation later focused on President Donald Trump, with the next topic being whether Trump has had a negative impact on American political culture and political norms.
All three College Democrat debaters agreed: “The amount of unprofessionalism that Trump has incited within this country … is absolutely absurd,” vice president of College Democrats Ashton Layh said.
“Tweets, name-calling and referring to the opposite party as the enemy is creating this us versus them mindset that is deeply, deeply harmful to political culture in the United States,” Layh said.
Turning Point representatives praised Trump’s straightforward nature.
“I think he’s done a fantastic job of being blunt … Trump will always go out and say exactly what’s on his mind … I think that’s a beautiful trait in a politician,” Nevid said.
Concluding the event with a question, BridgeUSA invited each debater and the audience to consider how they can lessen political division and polarization in the United States.
“We will figure out that we have things in common, that we all just want better for our country and better for the world around us,” College Democrats’ membership director Mekhi Stennis said.
“TPUSA is a very controversial organization, but if anything, I think that makes it more important that we express our disagreements,” Jones said. “One thing that the assassination of Charlie Kirk did show is that we have to pull back from the brink.”
Gracia echoed this perspective.
“America has to be more connected instead of being divided,” he said. “We actually agree on way more things than we know.”