On Feb. 25, Fox News host Laura Ingraham ’85 returned to campus for an open forum Q&A hosted by the Dartmouth Political Union, during which she spoke about her time at Dartmouth and her tenure as editor-in-chief of the Dartmouth Review as well as her take on contemporary politics.
Approximately 250 people attended the event — which was moderated by DPU president Mac Mahoney ’26 — in Filene Auditorium.
Ingraham’s visit marks her first time back on campus since her class’s 30th reunion in 2015. She said that walking around campus made her feel “very emotional.”
“Man, was I lucky to be at Dartmouth College,” she said. “I know everyone wants to talk about politics, but I wanted you to hear about my heart, because when you come back here, when you’re my age, God willing, that emotion’s gonna strike you.”
Ingraham noted that her work for the conservative student publication The Dartmouth Review in the 1980s taught her to “know the First Amendment.”
“From almost its inception in 1980, before I arrived on campus, the College went to war with the [Review],” Ingraham said. “What happened at Dartmouth taught me that you better know your rights.”
Ingraham added that “without free speech, none of us are actually even here tonight.”
“You better understand free expression, how to defend it, how to champion it, how to be courageous in your beliefs,” Ingraham said.
Shifting towards contemporary politics, Ingraham said that President Donald Trump won re-election in 2024 because both parties had “failed the middle class.”
“Republicans and Democrats destroyed the working class people of this country,” Ingraham said. “The Clintons, Obama, Biden [and] Mitt Romney … their policies, overwhelmingly, were a disaster for working men and women.”
Ingraham said that Trump “came along like a freight train” and built “a new coalition” of voters.
“Trump will be remembered as the most significant president of the last 50 years, no doubt about it,” Ingraham said.
Ingraham’s opening remarks were followed by a student Q&A.
The first question asked if Ingraham felt “regret” over an incident in 1984 during her tenure as editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Review when she sent a reporter to a Gay Student Association meeting and published the names of the organization’s officers. Ingraham responded that she did not “regret it at all.”
“It was not a private meeting, it was a public meeting advertised in [The Dartmouth], so … there was no violation of any law,” Ingraham said. “[For] the Review at the time, basically the view was, why do we have student groups based solely on sexuality? Why is that a defining characteristic of anyone?”
In response to a question about Ingraham’s views on LGBTQIA+ people, she noted that as a Roman Catholic, she believed that all people have “inherent dignity.”
“Every person has a soul worth existing, flourishing and being,” Ingraham said.
Ingraham added that she felt that evangelical Christians were more “sneered at” in pop culture than LGBTQIA+ people in recent years.
“I can’t think of a movie in the last 30 years where people who are evangelical Christians are portrayed in film as decent people,” Ingraham said. “Almost always, they’re ridiculed as stupid, backwater, dumb.”
In an interview with The Dartmouth after the event, Ingraham said that Dartmouth is “an amazing school” and that students should “love each other.”
“Dig deep, learn a lot, make friends from all different walks of life,” Ingraham said. “Enjoy this time that you have here.”
On the day of the event, students protested against Ingraham’s visit by covering a student-built igloo on the Green with Palestinian and LGBTQIA+ flags. Kate Pressgrove ’29, a student activist who participated in the igloo protest, said Ingraham spreads “really harmful words.”
“Bringing people like Ingraham to campus is allowing hate to spread,” Pressgrove said.
Later in the day, Dartmouth Safety and Security demolished the igloo.
Before the event, around 25 protesters gathered outside of the building and shouted “Racist, sexist, anti-gay! Laura Ingraham go away!” and “DPU, shame on you!”
Roan Wade ’25, a participant in the protest, said that bringing Ingraham to campus allowed her to push “dehumanizing rhetoric.”
“Many of us are queer and are very concerned about Laura Ingraham being platformed on our campus,” Wade said. “I am really frustrated by the fact that it feels like every year we’re forced to have the same debate about whether or not we are allowed to exist.”
A series of booklets handed out by the protestors called the event “a spectacle of racist, homophobic, xenophobic bigotry” and urged the DPU to stop “platforming fascists on our campus.”
In an interview with The Dartmouth before the event, DPU treasurer Roger Friedlander ’27 said “[the DPU] is glad that they’re able to express their opinions passionately and openly on campus.”
“We hope that they engage with our programming in a meaningful and valuable way to them,” he said.
Attendee Oz Trost ’27 called Ingraham “sensationalist” but said it was “important to understand” her rhetoric.
“I don’t think these events are important for their views,” Trost said. “I think they’re rather important for training the campus and allowing them to see into the minds of these sensationalist writers.”
Attendee Isabel Zarbin ’29 said the event “was really interesting” and that it is “always good to get different perspectives here on campus.”
“She’s very articulate,” Zarbin said. “It’s always good to get other perspectives here on campus.”
