By Asia Matthews with SGJC Student News Network
On Election Night, two senior journalism students from Brigham Young University, Kylie Swann and Mckenna Schmidt, traveled to Washington, D.C., to assist their peers in covering the political atmosphere in real time. Swann helped with coverage outside the White House, while Schmidt reported from the Republican Watch Party at Dirty Water, a local bar downtown.
Both students shared personal reasons for their decision to take part in this unique reporting opportunity.
"I wanted to be a part of it because I'd never been to D.C.," Swann said. "I used to live in Frederick for a few months, so I wanted to come back and visit the area and experience the environment during the elections."
For Schmidt, the significance of the experience became clear once she arrived in D.C.
"I love D.C., but it wasn't until I was here that I realized why I wanted to be part of it," Schmidt said. "Being in a crowd during a watch party was something I had never done before."
Schmidt’s assignment took her to one polling center, where she interacted with reporters from various countries. Later, she covered a Republican National Committee watch party at Dirty Water.
"It was really interesting to see so much media coverage in one small space, especially since there's a smaller Republican population in D.C., so there weren’t many other events to go to," Schmidt said.
The atmosphere at the Republican Watch Party shifted as the night went on, with energy rising as more people arrived and the electoral votes began to come in.
"Every time I turned, there were more people. By 10:30, it was so busy, it was hard to report,” Schmidt said. “There were cameras from all over— the Netherlands, France, the UK— all focused on this one Republican watch party. But throughout the night, the atmosphere stayed hopeful and confident."
Meanwhile, outside the White House, Swann observed a surprising mix of political supporters, particularly vocal Republican groups in a city where conservative voices are less common.
“There were a couple of different groups of Trump supporters, which was interesting because there wasn't a huge population of Republicans there, but it seemed like they were being the most vocal," Swann said.
Swann, who assisted with video stories, also mentioned the strong presence of younger voters outside the White House, “I noticed that there were a lot of Gen Z voters sharing their opinions on the election and voting.”
Schmidt was taken aback by the speed at which the election results unfolded, especially as President-elect Donald Trump quickly secured a 50.8% victory and 295 electoral votes.
"I was surprised at how quickly it all happened," Schmidt said. "My friend and I thought we wouldn’t know by that night, but waking up to see the results at 2:30 a.m. was a lot to take in, especially since Trump also won the popular vote, which was unexpected given his 2016 Electoral College win."
Swann, originally from conservative Utah, found the contrast of political perspectives in D.C. interesting as she engaged with people from different backgrounds.
"I think what's interesting is coming from conservative Utah and then coming here and talking to different groups," Swann said. "When you're in a community that believes the same thing, it's easy to misjudge what's generally happening. I feel like I did talk to a lot of people who were very confident one way or the other, and it was interesting to see how things turned out and how people are going to adjust."