The CMU College Democrats executive board introduced themselves on Instagram with their “favorite Democrat meme,” making references to Dark Brandon, Chappell Roan and coconut trees. Sueiro said she hopes efforts like these excite voters at CMU, a campus she described as politically inactive.

Near the end of September, Pitt and CMU College Democrats, alongside the Young Democrats of Allegheny County, hosted congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, and Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, on CMU’s campus. Both called on students to become more politically active in their communities and support the Harris-Walz ticket.

“At the end of the day, we are a democracy and that means people need to be active in choosing who is going to be in charge of this country.”

At her club’s presidential debate watch party, Sueiro said the vibes were “fantastic” and that many students believe this to be a critical election. While she believes excitement about politics will endure through November, she’s looking to keep students engaged in organizing well into the future.

“At the end of the day, we are a democracy and that means people need to be active in choosing who is going to be in charge of this country,” Sueiro said.

To get students considering how politics impacts them, Podnar said she brings up topics that will “make a tangible difference” in their lives, such as student debt forgiveness, the cost of living and raising the minimum wage. She added that students are “really receptive to messages about reproductive rights.”

Abby DiLoreto, president of the Chatham University Democrats, said she is looking for ways to excite students to vote while educating them about the democratic process. She cited a Barbie-themed voter registration table she worked on with the Pennsylvania Center for Women in Politics in 2023 as an example of combining pop culture with voter engagement.

“We got so many people who normally ignore our voter registration tables because they were like, ‘I want a picture in the Barbie booth,’” DiLoreto said. “It was really successful.”

Divisive topics, common ground?

Leaders of College Republican chapters say they face harassment and tension from their student bodies as they organize on campus.

At Pitt, College Republicans chapter secretary Jesse Milston said the club aims to give students a space to discuss their conservative values, something he feels is “completely unwelcome on a public college campus.”

Cacciato is doing the same at CMU, where he said students of any political orientation are invited to their meetings to learn about conservative beliefs and dialogue with Republican students.

“It’s important that you have the opportunity to speak,” Cacciato said, “but it’s also important that people have the opportunity to challenge you respectfully on what you believe so you can either learn to grow in what you believe or grow in ways that you can help talk about what you believe and defend what you believe.”

Cacciato said some members of the CMU College Republicans have been called profane names and experienced social isolation for being openly Republican on campus.

“I’ve had people in the past stop talking to me because they find out I’m a Republican,” Cacciato said.

JJ Glaneman and Ava Hickman, co-presidents of Duquesne University’s College Republicans chapter, said they experienced harassment when hosting a “pro-life table.” Glaneman said students sent messages on social media saying they wish they could “eff them up” and that seeing the table was “ruining their day.”

Sueiro said she’s looking forward to co-hosting an event collaborating with Cacciato and the College Republicans, but doesn’t plan to do so until after the election. She worries that the two organizations working together could be “controversial” among the student body. Although Sueiro said she’s an acquaintance of Cacciato, she doesn’t want “CMU drama” to impact how students vote.

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DiLoreto said she’s looking to help students feel more confident talking about politics while getting them more involved.

“We wanted to just make it more comfortable. I think a lot of times talking about politics can get tense, and there’s a lot of stigma about, ‘You can’t talk to people on the other side,’” DiLoreto said. “I feel like I know so many people who are like, ‘I just don’t even want to get started, I don’t even want to learn about it, it just stresses me out.’ If we can make that process for someone easier, even one person, that means a lot to me.”

Spencer Levering is an editorial intern and studies communications and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. He can be reached at spencer@publicsource.org.