Political Student Groups React to Election Returns

After almost two years of intensive campaign efforts, Harvard students in groups on both sides of the aisle gathered with their respective organizations to watch long-anticipated election results pour in last night.

An undergraduate-heavy crowd, snacking on pizza and free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, watched CNN’s coverage of the election at the John F. Kennedy, Jr. Forum at the Institute of Politics.

Below the forum’s big screen, life-size cut-outs of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain stood next to a map showing the states each candidate had won—the Obama cut-out posed for substantially more photo ops over the course of the evening.

Before the results had even begun to trickle in, CNN attracted viewers’ attention by showcasing a new technology that allowed a reporter in Chicago to appear as a hologram in the network’s New York studio.

In a smaller room off to the side of the Forum, members of the Harvard Republican Club gathered to watch the results in the company of other conservatives.

Republican Club president Colin J. Motley ’10 said it was almost surreal that it was finally election day after all the efforts the club had put into campaigning.

The mood at the HRC party was notably more solemn than that of the much larger IOP celebration.

“They say that there are five stages of grief, and right now I’m in the stage of denial,” said HRC member Jordan A. Monge ’12.

Well before the race was called in Obama’s favor, Republican students acknowledged that their presidential candidate was the underdog. Still, they held out hope earlier in the evening that the night would produce at least some victories for their party.

“The other thing that we’re looking at is even if McCain loses, we’ll consider it a victory if we win in New Hampshire because both we and the Dems campaigned there,” Motley said.

Ultimately, however, the Republican hopes were not fulfilled—both Obama and former IOP Director Jeanne Shaheen, a former New Hampshire governor running for U.S. Senate, proved successful in the Granite State.

Shaheen was not the only member of the IOP family to flash across the forum’s screen last night—current IOP fellow Alex Castellanos also appeared as a commentator on CNN.

Two blocks away, members of the Harvard College Democrats, the Kennedy School Democratic Caucus, the Harvard Business School Democrats, and the Harvard Law School Democrats packed the three floors of Tommy Doyle’s Pub.

This crowd was much rowdier than the groups gathered at the IOP or Republican parties—the only items more common than beers in the room were Obama stickers.

Screams flooded the bar every time CNN reported that Obama was leading McCain in any state.

Around 11 p.m., CNN announced the news every viewing party had been waiting for: Obama had been elected the 44th president of the United States.

The IOP crowd erupted into cheers and hugs, and people hoisted the Obama cut-out into the air and passed it around.

Festivities spilled out into the Yard, where students congregated around the John Harvard statue. After a brass band played the National Anthem, the crowd broke out into impromptu chants of “O-bam-a” and “Yes We Can.”

—Staff Writer Lauren D. Kiel can be reached at lkiel@fas.harvard.edu.