Students to participate in final Presidential mock debate

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Chris Barton (left) as President Jimmy Carter and David Yoo (right) as Governor Ronald Reagan in the first Presidential debate.

Radford University students are participating in the final mock debate of the 2016 political season on Oct. 27 at 5 p.m. in the Bonnie Auditorium.

The Presidential mock debate comes on the heels of a mock debate between former presidential candidates – and Presidents – Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

Radford students Kaleb Peterson and McKenzie Meade are portraying versions of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, respectively. Graduate student Kristina Contreras and student Fatima Gadiaga are coaching the Trump camp, while students Izzie Taveras and Ciara Maxwell are coaching and Theresa Pelonero is the communication director for the Clinton camp.

“Determining a strategy to coach Trump was a challenge,” Contreras said. “We needed to figure out how much of the real Trump to include and how much did we want to try to reimage as to what a strong Republican candidate should look like. We decided that while we would have a few of the real Trump’s idiosyncrasies and would be presenting his real policies.”

Coaching Clinton also presented challenges.

“We are primarily focusing on Hillary being as comfortable and confident as possible,” Pelonero said. “Our main concern is her becoming distracted by interruptions and becoming flustered or discouraged from an attack.”

“We've focused on her relating to the American public more,” Taveras said. “In all of our mock answers that we prepared, we've focused on her addressing everyday Americans and how her policies will help improve their lives.”

The following topics will be discussed at the mock debate:

  • Community and Social Issues
  • Climate Change
  • Domestic Policy
  • Healthcare
  • Immigration and Refugees
  • Foreign Affairs and Terrorism
  • Economy    

Oct 26, 2016
Max Esterhuizen
(540) 831-7749
westerhuizen