Colorado’s U.S. Senate race begins in earnest this week with a major surprise: The Libertarian candidate will participate in the first debate.
Lily Tang Williams will join Democrat Michael Bennet and Republican Darryl Glenn at the Club 20 debate Saturday in Grand Junction — a significant opportunity to boost the Libertarian Party’s exposure in Colorado in a year in which voters are looking for alternatives to the major party candidates at the top of the ticket.
The 52-year-old small businesswoman and Chinese immigrant is the first third-party candidate in recent memory to qualify for a major U.S. Senate debate in Colorado, said Libertarian Chairman Jay North.
“I’m going to tell people that I offer a real third option,” Williams said in an interview. “The two-party duopoly in our country has not worked well.”
Williams qualified for the debate after new figures released Tuesday showed the Libertarian Party reached 1 percent of registered voters in Colorado — the threshold to participate in the Club 20 debate, which serves as unofficial kickoff of the fall campaign.
