CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Students at the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi joined together across campus to watch the first presidential debate.
"Young people are the future, we are the next generation of leaders in the country. It's events like this that allow us to engage younger folks to inspire them to vote," said Colleen Grace, the vice president of the political science club at the university.
More than 60 students attended the watch parties and organization leaders say they were surprised.
"We didn't know if people were going to want to show up to the event because of COVID-19, so when I saw that number I was very surprised and very happy that students were still interested," said Isabela Huerta, the president of the political science club at the university.
Students watched the presidential candidates address topics ranging from the coronavirus to supreme court nominees, and healthcare.
"It's really rough because one person starts talking about it and then the other person starts talking over them," said Ean Estevanes, a student at the university.
Event coordinators managed to keep the students at a safe distance and required each person to keep their mask on during the watch party. Students said it was an interesting start to the elections, the first of many that they'll be tuning into before elections.
"Go vote, do your research, make an educated decision and make sure you just get out there and vote," said Valeria Villagomez, the public information officer for the political science club at the university.