Members of activist organizations on campus gathered for a town hall last Wednesday to discuss their concerns and provide insight into their next steps after the election.
They identified President Joe Biden's unkept promises during his term and Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign mishaps as primary reasons for the loss.
"He (Biden) did try to forgive the student debt, and then the court stopped it," said Bryce Askew a senior studying chemical engineering and the chair of Young Democratic Socialists of America at ASU. "He did a lot of talking about climate change, not a lot of action."
The event featured a panel with the chair members of YDSA at ASU, Students for Justice in Palestine, Bafrayung Itst and Phoenix City Councilwoman-Elect Anna Hernandez, where they addressed student concerns.
A major reason why the Democratic Party lost, according to the panelists, was because they misdirected their platform and moved away from a major issue for U.S. voters: the economy.
"The Democratic Party really honed in on democracy and we talked about border policy," Hernandez said. "Democracy can be alive and well, but if people can't afford their rent and can't afford food and can't afford health care, does democracy really matter to everybody?"
Hernandez was elected this November in the general election as a Democratic councilmember for the Phoenix City Council 7th District with more than 53% of the votes
Hayden Nguyen, a sophomore studying management and a co-chair of SJP, highlighted Hernandez's candidacy and her ability to take a "progressive socialist platform" and win against an "ocean of Republicans."
"What she (Hernandez) did do was she stood up for Palestine, she stood up for social justice, she stood up for police accountability, she stood up for housing justice, she stood up for tenants and the unhoused," Nguyen said. "And she did all these things while the Democratic Party was saying, 'We don't need them, we're not interested, we don't want to deal with that.'"
Hernandez said she thinks that a way to reform the party – as much as it can be because it will continue to exist – is having an outside strategy.
"In order to get away from that Democratic Party, we do have to build other viable political parties," Hernandez said. "I am also working with the Working Families Party to really build that viable third-party option that eventually, one day, will be a ballot line here in Arizona."
The panel then considered what comes next for them and those they advocate for.
"We need to protect each other, especially when a large part of Trump's policy is around trying to censor us and silence us and shut us down…so join our clubs and get involved with the activists and the organizers who are already here," said Sophie Levitt, a senior studying justice studies and the chair of BI and co-chair of SJP.
Hernandez said she believes in preparing for the worst to happen in the next four years and building a movement with "a pipeline of candidates that truly reflect the values of the community."
The members of the panel urged those who want to get involved and take steps to better help the community to join organizations and movement groups like theirs.
"We're going to make it a system for the people, instead of for the people who have money and who have power," Levitt said. "We are the people, and we should have power."
Edited by George Headley, Sophia Ramirez and Natalia Jarrett.
Reach the reporter at elbradfo@asu.edu and follow @emmalbradford__ on X.
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Emma is a sophomore studying journalism and mass communication and political science, with a minor in business. This is her second semester with The State Press.
