Members of the Dickinson College Republican Club’s executive board will appear in the Oct. 31 program of the television show Business Matters. Krysti Oschal ’17 and Mitchell Snyder ’19 defended their political stances against Democratic student representatives at the taping of the show on Thursday, Oct. 20 in Allentown, PA.

“We talked a good deal in the beginning about immigration, we [swerved] into a little brief talk about fitness to be president for both candidates,” said Snyder. “[The program] ended with a discussion about who would be able to bring back jobs into the country and who’d be able to foster that economic growth that we’ve seemed to be lacking in the past few years.”

According to Oschal, the taping was a great opportunity for her team to highlight their views on the elections and explain why they are supporting Donald Trump for president.

“As President of the College Republicans, I really encourage people to share their opinions and articulate why they believe the things they do. I saw this as a great opportunity for me to show why I am supporting Donald Trump,” she stated.

According to Snyder, Wesley Smith ’17, Vice President of the Dickinson College Republicans, was contacted by the GOP. Smith was asked to recommend two millennials who supported Donald Trump.  He then directed the GOP to Oschal and Snyder, who both accepted the nomination to appear on Business Matters.

“The TV show wanted both sides of the argument, a man and a woman to debate it, because they can offer different points of views,” said Snyder. He further stated that since both he and Oschal had previous debate experience, they decided to attend the taping together.

The show included two panelists for Hillary supporters and three for Trump supporters with an undecided voter joining the panel later on. Snyder and Oschal were on the Trump panel with Christopher Baker from the Bull-Moose Party at Penn State University.

According to Snyder, the producers of the show encouraged the participants to voice their opinions without holding back.

“They encouraged us to interrupt each other, talk back and forth and to have those really important discussions. Not to really hold back because it was about getting out everybody’s views, everybody’s emotions…” stated Snyder.

While the event was largely a discussion, according to Snyder, there were some “heated” moments.

“[Oschal] and the young woman from the Hillary group [Laura Bieber] got a little heated at certain points talking about women’s rights issue[s]” Snyder maintained.

The event was followed by a mixer that included young business leaders, producers of the show and Congressman Charlie W. Dent of the P.A. 15th Congressional District.

Both Snyder and Oschal maintained that they were glad they got the chance to attend the taping.

“It was a fun event and it was just a great opportunity to get out and speak with other millennials and debate on issues!” said Oschal.

Business Matters is hosted by Tony Iannelli on the local Television channel WFMZ-Ch 69. The show airs on Mondays at 7:30 p.m. The show typically hosts four panelists who represent two sides of an issue. Previous topics of the show have ranged from gun rights, school vouchers and taxes.

The College Republicans’ episode will air on Monday, Oct. 31. The online episode will be available at wfmz.com/business/businessmatters