BY JESS LYNK
For the third time this election cycle, all three Democratic presidential candidates gathered in Sheslow Auditorium on January 25 to make their pitch to voters across the country for the last time before the Iowa caucuses. The event was a forum hosted by CNN.
Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley and Hillary Clinton answered questions from moderator and CNN host Chris Cuomo, as well as from Iowans in the audience.
Some of those Iowans were Drake students and Drake Law students, given the opportunity to do so after submitting questions when applying for a ticket.
Senior Skylar Borchardt had the opportunity to attend the forum, and saw no standouts from previous events he had attended, including the Brown and Black Forums earlier in January.
“Performance wise, I think it was about the same,” Borchardt said. “I’m a little jaded because I’ve heard them all so many times. I’m lucky I go to Drake to have that opportunity, but I think all of them are really sticking to their talking points.”
Although they stuck to their talking points, like Borchardt had seen many times before, he liked the style of this forum better than ones he has seen in the past, like the Brown and Black Forums, also hosted on the same stage.
The Brown and Black Forums was an event focused on minority issues, but was set up similarly, having each candidate talk at once, in a chair with a moderator.
But for Borchardt, the atmosphere was different.
“(This event) definitely has a different kind of presence. I really enjoyed it,” Borchardt said. “I think that was most different this time. They all got up from their chairs, walked around a little more, and had fun that way, engaged the audience that way. It was nice to get true audience questions this time.”
Another opportunity Borchardt was excited for after the forum was the ‘What’s a caucus?’ event.
“It’ll be the first time for non-political junkies at Drake to really see (the differences between) the Republican style and the Democratic style, how much more active the Democratic caucus will be,” Borchardt said.
Jake Bullington also contributed to this article.
