In Madison, College Students Say They’re Voting For Biden. Mostly For 1 Reason.

MADISON, Wis. — When President Joe Biden came to Madison Area Technical College last week, he was hoping to fire up students here about his new plans to cancel student loan debt for millions more Americans.

“I will never stop [fighting] to deliver student debt relief,” Biden vowed in remarks laying out his latest proposals. “By freeing millions of Americans from this crushing debt of student debt, it means they can finally get on with their lives instead of their lives being put on hold.”

But his speech had barely ended before students were racing out of the building for something more exciting: a solar eclipse. Dozens of teenagers and early-20-somethings gathered outside, swapping crumpled pairs of paper solar eclipse glasses with each other and staring into the sun. Nobody was talking about the president or student loans. In fact, none of these students had even gone to Biden’s event. It was invite-only.

“I think the student Senate got in?” wondered Matt, 19, a student from the nearby town of Verona. “That shit is stupid!” interrupted another student charging through, pointing at the sky and looking for a pair of glasses. That was the end of any student loan talk.

Biden picked this Madison school for his student loan speech because it checks two boxes for his presidential campaign: appealing to young voters and showing his face in Wisconsin, a swing state that will be pivotal to winning the election in November. Biden narrowly defeated former President Donald Trump here in 2020. Trump narrowly won it in 2016.

Six months before the election, both candidates are aggressively courting voters here. Beyond last week’s trip, Biden was in Milwaukee last month, fresh off his State of the Union address, pitching voters on