American women host watch parties for historic VP debate



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WASHINGTON: The debate between the US vice presidency on Wednesday night (October 7) will pit Kamala Harris, the first woman of color on a major ticket, against a conservative white male vice president and some Americans, especially women, they are preparing to watch the fight.

Activist groups, university associations, and individuals from across the country have primarily hosted online “watch parties” as Harris debates with US Vice President Mike Pence, who is running with President Donald Trump in the November 3 election. .

“I can really say that Kamala is ready,” said Rahdiah Barnes, president of the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications in New York, which is pushing for diversity in the media and has hosted an observation party. “This is history. She has something to prove, and I’ve heard her say a thing or two over the past two days, so I can tell she’s preparing for war.”

The vice-presidential debate does not normally attract as much attention as the presidential one. In 2016, the showdown between Tim Kaine and Pence drew 37 million, less than half of the viewers who saw Trump take on Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

After Trump tested positive for the coronavirus last week, the two people who would be next in line for the presidency behind two septuagenarians have taken on enormous importance.

Sera Bonds, co-founder of Waking Giants, an Austin, Texas-based communications company, said the online watching party she has thrown for her friends and neighbors will feature bingo cards (boxes include “mother,” “birth certificate “and” Howard University “) and entrants will be entered into a drawing to win prizes from women-owned businesses.

Bonds and other organizers say they expect a substantive debate on policies and issues, compared to the presidential debate where Trump constantly interrupted challenger Joe Biden.

“If there’s any chance to win back voters and regain their trust in the broader platform, this is it,” said another watchdog party organizer, Catherine McNeil, who runs a career development company in Illinois.

“Of course there will be some kind of confusion because that is politics. However, we are going to find out where each one is. That is a fact,” he said.

HER, a dating app for LGBTQ people, expects about 50 people to attend its virtual party. Kris Chesson, the company’s global events manager, thinks Harris’s slight resemblance to “The L Word” television show character Bette Porter might be an attraction, but the issues would be the most important.

“Last week’s debate hardly counts at all to me” because of how little he got involved with the issues that concern voters, said Chesson, who lives in the California Bay Area.

“This will be the first real debate,” he said. “I’m excited about that, and I’m a little sad that there’s only one vice president debate.

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