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Bars Closed, New Orleans Scrambles to Watch Debates in New Ways During COVID
Shutdown

Matt Haines

   NEW ORLEANS - T. Cole Newton began hosting presidential debate watch
   parties at his New Orleans, Louisianabar in 2012.

   "It was a business decision as much as anything else,"Newtontold VOA.
   "I knew my regulars would want to watch as much as I did, so we made an
   event out of it."

   His bar is Twelve Mile Limit,a cross between a neighborhood dive and a
   cocktail bar,and he said it routinely fills up during their watch
   parties.

   "Even during the primary debates, we'd be packed like a sports bar
   during a football game! Lots of beer, snacks, andhootin' andhollerin'.
   We get way busier for debates than even big games."

   In 2020, however, watch parties like Newton's are no longer permitted
   as local officials continue to impose restrictions on businesses and
   social gatherings in an attempt to contain the spread of the
   coronavirus pandemic. In New Orleans, for example, bars have remained
   closed for months.

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