Early leaders of NU Political Union described the organization's beginnings as such: "The Political Union was founded in the spring of 2008 by a group of students who debated in apartments while hanging out and enjoying a few libations. They decided this would be a good model for a debate forum on campus. They took the idea to former Northwestern President Bienen, and he loved it. The club took off from there."

Within a few years, Political Union had grown into a bona fide student organization, constituted by an executive board and a regular schedule of debates, Q&As with NU faculty, and guest speakers. Political Union began to co-sponsor events with student organizations of various size and scope on Northwestern's campus, including College Republicans, College Democrats, and For Members Only. Speakers hosted or co-hosted by Political Union have included Noam Chomsky, Ivo Daalder, Ibram X. Kendi, and Sarah Kliff. Recent developments in the club's history include collaboration with unions at several other American universities and, in spring 2020, the launch of the Political Union blog as a platform for opinion and analysis - the club's first foray into political content creation.

Political Union continues to experiment with new event structures - everything from watch parties to picnics. But despite rapid growth and change, some things at Political Union have stayed the same since the beginning. Spirited debates are always concluded with a trip to the Celtic Knot, a local pub and eatery in Evanston, Illinois. 1902 Sheridan Road remains our home on Monday nights, from 7:00 to 8:00 pm. And most importantly, Political Union has and always will be a group of friends before it is a group of debaters.

Former Political Union Leaders:

Founders: Sam Kleiner and Jacob Wertz

2011-2012: Ben Armstrong and Nick Ruge

2012-2013: Nick Ruge and Nate Enfield

2013-2014: Michael Kurtz and Steven Monicelli

2014-2015: Ben Koltun and Connor Tatooles

2015-2016: Karna Nangia and Alexi Stocker

2016-2017: Sabrina Williams and David Gernon

2017-2018: Avi Dravid and Max Rowe

2018-2019: Jake Gordon and Joshua Varcie

2019-2020: Jahan Sahni and Molly Jo Molloy ​

​2020-2021: Eliana Buckner and Sachin Shukla

2021-2022: Pamela Chen and Felix Beilin

2022-2023: Sonia Peters and Will Secker

2023-2024: Yasmeen Mohammed Rafee and Parker Stava