The Democratic Party of Evanston held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Nov. 13 to celebrate the opening of their new office in west Evanston.

The new office, located at 1806 Church St., replaced the party’s old office space, which was filled over capacity in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 6 election. The larger space will be able to accommodate more volunteers and phone banks.

Jane Neumann, a DPOE board member, said before the event that their old office could not support all of the volunteers who wanted to help prior to the election.

“I think that the experience of this recent election showed us that there are a lot more new activist volunteers in our community than we had before,” Neumann said. “We were busting at the seams at the old office, and we recognized that we needed to have more space to allow those volunteers to have a home base.”

Though DPOE had begun to use the space before the election season ended, the ribbon-cutting ceremony made their move official.

Michelle Jordan, the president of the DPOE board, said that she thinks the move will help make the organization available to more people around the Evanston area.

“It’s really going to work out well, and I think it sort of acts as a roadmap for where we’re going as an organization,” she said. “We want to involve more young people, so we’re very close to the high school right around the corner, and we’re in a part of Evanston that’s accessible for transit.”

Several of Illinois’ most prominent Democratic political figures, like State Sen. Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) and State Rep. Laura Fine (D-Glenview), who was elected to the State Senate on Nov. 6, were present for the ceremony, and Ald. Peter Braithwaite (2nd), said he is excited to begin the work ahead.

DPOE also brought in Northwestern political science Prof. Laurel Harbridge-Yong to debrief what happened in the midterm elections.

Harbidge-Yong said even though the Democratic party gained control of the House during the midterms, the victory didn’t secure the “blue wave” so many had hoped for. She explained the significance of the seats that turned during the election and spoke about the current political polarization in the country. Harbridge-Young said while she was encouraged by the number of people who voted across the country this year, people could always do more to try to listen to each other.

“An estimated 113 million people voted in this election, which is the first midterm election in history with over 100 million voters,” she said during the event. “But both on politics and especially on race and religion, it’s possible to meet someone and realize that ‘Oh this is a person I like, and this is a person who’s a good person, but they think differently than me on something.’”

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