A debate this week between two of the most prominent political strategists in the country—Kellyanne Conway and Donna Brazile—will kick off the student-run Dartmouth Political Union’s 2024-25 public programming.
The Press & the 2024 Election: An Expert Debate, presented in partnership with Dartmouth Dialogues, will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 10, in Filene Auditorium.
In-person attendance sold out within 48 hours of registration opening, said DPU President Malcolm Mahoney ’26. But Dartmouth community members and the public can watch the event via a livestream.
Brazile is a Democratic strategist and former chair of the Democratic National Committee. With over four decades in American politics, she made history as the first African American woman to manage a major presidential campaign, working for Al Gore in 2000. She appears regularly as a political commentator on CNN and ABC News.
Conway was the campaign manager for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign—the first woman to lead a winning presidential campaign in U.S. history. Following the election, Conway served as senior counselor to President Trump, where she was pivotal in shaping the administration’s communication and media strategy. She is a frequent contributor on Fox News.
The DPU is a nonpartisan group whose members are dedicated to “promoting open discourse and challenging preconceptions” among their Dartmouth peers. Speakers and topics are selected by student executive committee members and DPU ambassadors through a rank choice voting process.
Mahoney said that it’s not consensus they seek through these discussions, but the DPU does want to ensure “there’s a space on campus that doesn’t resort to name-calling, divisiveness, or vitriol.”
“If I were coming out of high school, I would be nervous coming into a new environment this year,” Mahoney said. “We just want to give the ’28s—and everybody, really—a chance to have civil dialogue.”
The DPU has already held discussions at its regular meetings this term on U.S. aid to Israel, policies to address homelessness, and the relationship between Congress and the stock market. Later in October, it will host a debate on the presidential race that is open to the Dartmouth community only—an intentional choice by DPU leaders despite media interest in the young voters’ perspectives and how the college vote across New Hampshire could shape the outcome of the election.
“We want students to be able to make an off-the-cuff remark without the entire world watching,” Mahoney said.
The DPU plans to follow the fall term programming with another public debate on Jan. 16 featuring Union Theological Seminary philosophy professor Cornel West, who is running for president as an independent, and Princeton legal scholar Robert P. George, in a debate on political philosophy contrasting capitalism and socialism.
On Feb. 26, the DPU will host political commentator, author, and former White House aide Keith Boykin ’87 and Ian Rowe, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and co-founder of Vertex Partnership Academies, to debate the merits of programming related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Forums sponsored by the DPU last year covered such topics as the Israel-Hamas war and gun laws, and the group’s success in hosting respectful dialogue on contentious topics has garnered praise from groups such as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
