Sumana Anand didn’t know much about Kelly Ayotte or Chuck Morse when she took her seat in the auditorium of New England College Wednesday.

The 17-year-old student from Derry kicked off her freshman year by attending her first candidate debate just before she turns 18 later this month and can register to vote in the November general election.

Veronica Shore, a 20-year-old junior from Maine won’t be able to cast a ballot for either candidate but admitted the contest was an interesting look into the politics of her neighboring state – something she hadn’t paid attention to before attending the small liberal arts college in Henniker, that remains a consistent campaign stop come election time.

“I’m not exactly in on the more local things happening, politics-wise, in New Hampshire, and this campus is very good for stuff like this,” said Shore. “Candidates are always coming through here, people are always coming to talk, so I like to come to these events.”

For much of the night  the two candidates – Ayotte, a former U.S. Senator and Morse, a former New Hampshire Senate President – read from the same script.

When asked if they agree with former President Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen, neither provided a yes-or-no answer.

Morse said voters he’s talked to on the campaign trail are concerned about election security and the state should strengthen laws, requiring identification to vote. Ayotte said Joe Biden is the president but change is needed come November.

Each candidate emphasized their endorsement of Trump. They both are opposed to sanctuary cities and legalizing marijuana, agree the state of housing is at a crisis point, support the current 24-week abortion law and vowed to protect female sports by barring transgender girls from playing.

The details to differentiate themselves, though, is what soured the young voters.

Ayotte said the attack ads by political action committees against her stance on abortion – critiquing votes from her Senate tenure and support for Trump – show she’s the only legitimate candidate in Democrats’ eyes.

“The Democrats never talk about Chuck Morse because they know they can easily beat him, yet they call me the most dangerous threat that New Hampshire has ever seen,” she said.

Recent polling from the University of New Hampshire at the end of August showed that nearly two-thirds of Republican voters would likely vote for Ayotte.

To Morse, Ayotte’s record in Washington – where he said she voted with Democrats over 260 times in the Senate – and her decision to not endorse Trump in 2016, shows he is a more committed Republican.

“Now is the time to unite the party and I don’t believe our party will unite behind someone that talks like a conservative and governs like a Democrat,” he said.

While Morse went after Ayotte’s record, she fired back with claims that he voted with Maggie Hassan when she was governor “99 percent of the time, and only voted against her 17 times.”

The implication that voting with the other party should be a black mark on a candidate is the antithesis of what Anand thinks politics should be.

To her, politicians should, and often have to, work across party lines to deliver results rather than sticking to a party’s playbook – if it’s not in the best interest of those they represent.

“I don’t necessarily agree with every single thing that each candidate said, but I respect acting beyond party lines,” she said.

The deep partisanship of today’s politics isn’t new, though. Shore would say most of her friends are already tired of government – before they even cast their first vote in a presidential election.

“People are burnt out from the way the vibes around this have been for like our entire lives,” she said. “Trump was elected for the first time when we were in middle school.”