In a world of hyper-partisan politics, it’s tough to find common ground among opposing political figures.

But in the case of Thursday’s final presidential debate between Republican incumbent President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, leaders of local party affiliates in Grays Harbor County agreed on two things: The debate this time around was much more civil, but likely didn’t move the needle much in terms of votes.

The Daily World spoke with Lisa Zaborac, Chair of the Grays Harbor County Republican Party, and Mike Cooper, Vice Chair of the Grays Harbor County Democrats, to get their views on what turned out to be a more palatable, yet still contentious debate.

Question: What were your thoughts on this debate compared to the previous Presidential debate?

Zaborac: I think the moderator did a good job of keeping things under control. Toward the end, when there was a little more back-and-forth, (the moderator) would have them move on and I thought they could have gone a little deeper into some topics, but I know they had a lot of topics they wanted to get to. Typically, the last debate is usually over foreign policy, they covered quite a wide range and the moderator kind of hit all the points she wanted to hit. … I feel that everybody who has planning to vote for Trump hasn’t changed their mind in any way. I feel that he laid out the facts of what he has done and it was pretty well done.

I’ll tell ya, after the first one, I was a little bit stressed. … There was just so much of everyone talking over each other and trying to get everything down as to what they were saying and I thought it was a stressful debate because of that. This one was more calm and a little more civil.

Cooper: Certainly, the President was more behaved last night than in the first debate and a little more civil. Quite frankly, I think enough of the American people have made up their minds as to how they are going to vote. I’m not sure the debates are changing anybody’s vote necessarily, there are so few undecided voters. But I think President Trump continues to mislead the people in response to the COVID-19 crisis and the economy and things he’s done as President. None of that changed, he was just more civil about it. And Joe Biden continued to act like a leader of the American people and was much more presidential and was composed and poised in his answers.

Q: What did you think were some of the key highlights of the debate?

Cooper: In particular, the COVID-19 response showed the stark contrast between the two candidates. The President repeatedly has said we are turning the corner and things are getting better, yet his response has been dismally slow and he continues to promise a vaccine even though the companies — even the one he mentioned, Johnson & Johnson — had announced a few weeks ago they paused their clinical trials. All of the companies are saying they won’t have a vaccine until spring and I think that’s just misleading the American people. … Biden continued to show he had a plan and a willingness to work with the scientists instead of just making up answers. We haven’t turned a corner. Our numbers here in Grays Harbor County increased drastically this summer when they were stable during the spring.

I think the President continues to not be willing to talk about his tax returns and we’ll get it when the audit is done, well show us some information, Be transparent with the people. Don’t mislead us by suggesting the auditors and accountants are in control. That’s another big issue in my mind. He keeps promising health care and he accuses Biden of being in favor of Medicare-for-all and he keeps saying he has a plan but he hasn’t developed a plan and he is supporting the right-wing of his party in their lawsuit of the affordable care act. He doesn’t seem to have any regard to providing health care for the American people during this pandemic.

Zaborac: I really like the idea of term limits. … One of the things that Trump said a number of times I do agree with is that Biden has been in the government for 40-some years and has all these plans of what he is going to do, but a lot of this is stuff he hadn’t worked on before or addressed in the past. That was something that always sticks with me is when people say, ‘Elect me again and this time I’m going to do this.” That always bothers me. And when they talked about health care, something that I am really passionate about because when Obamacare started to be phased in, my family had (private health) insurance. … And by the time Obamacare was completely in place, we could no longer afford to have health care. … I don’t see Obamacare as a good thing. … I’m not a big fan of it.

I feel that (the Democrats) are always trying to go back to Putin this and Putin that and the Russia thing. I feel as though that is beating a dead horse at this point.

When Biden said he never said he opposed fracking, I know I’ve seen videos of him saying that. So when he said, ‘Show me that video. Put it on your website.’ I was just starting to Google search to find those clips because I know I’ve seen him and Harris say it.

I would have liked to hear a lot more about what Biden’s plans were. Many times he said he had a plan for that and I thought, ‘Okay, so what was the plan?’ I didn’t really hear him say anything.

Another thing Trump brought up regarding the minimum wage: I want everyone to make a good living, but the reality is that the rules put in place for downtown Seattle is not going to work for Hoquiam. … You can’t have one size fits all. Even dealing with COVID-19, you had certain states that did not do total lock-downs. Their numbers are really not that unreasonable compared to states that did have total lock-downs. … I think some states have gone overboard and businesses are suffering. Trump saying we need to get things opened back up is important. … I think he is showing leadership and I feel Biden, in a lot of the things he was talking about, is the government knows better.

Q: What impact do you feel this debate will have on swaying voters to one candidate or the other?

Cooper: At this point, a lot of people have already voted. … They’ve made up their mind and all the polling I’ve seen is there aren’t many undecided voters. … Biden is in a position where all he needs to do is continue his message. He’s leading in the polls. Trump is behind nationally and continues in the debate to talk to his base and doesn’t appear to be trying to move the needle. He needs to hit a home run. He needs to hit a home run. He basically was sort of delivering his message to his voters, but he didn’t hit a home run.

Nothing either one of them said I don’t think necessarily changed anybody’s vote. If I was an independent on policy positions, I’d continue to be frustrated.

Zaborac: It depends on if those people are willing to do some research and look into things deeper. People who are behind Trump are going to be behind Trump. … People who hate Trump are going to vote for Biden. Personally, of all the people I’ve talked to or heard speak, nobody is excited to vote for Biden. They don’t have the same passion behind them as Trump’s base of supporters. (Trump’s base) feels that because he is not a politician that he is our best chance to break some of the life as normal politics and kind of shake that up a bit. I honestly couldn’t say that I’d think that people who were on the fence would go one way or another because if they haven’t already done some of this research and seen what each candidate stands for, I don’t know if you got the information tonight that would have helped you make that choice.