Tonight, Oct. 28, the GOP will hold its third Republican presidential debate in Boulder, Colorado at the Coors Event Center. While the arena, located on the University of Colorado Boulder campus, seats 11,000, only 1,000 people will be able to get tickets. That leaves 10,000 empty seats. So why all of the empty seats? That is the question that Senior Aaron Miller asked.
In fact, Miller’s question helped start the movement, #StudentVoicesCount. As the coordinator of the movement, Miller says:
“Our movement really started out of the desire to increase the amount of tickets that were going to be made available for students, but it’s since then, it’s grown to represent so much more.”
According to Nashville Public Radio:
“The way it was explained to us by CNBC is the event is meant for a TV audience, not so much for a live audience, “said Ryan Lynch, the executive director of the Colorado Republican Party, which will get 200 tickets to split among party donors and elected officials…Lynch says the Republican National Committee also gets 200 seats, the presidential candidates onstage will each get some, CNBC will keep some for itself, and the University of Colorado will get 150 seats.”
So with a student body that exceeds 30,000, only 150 will get tickets. While the TV audience explanation may make sense to some, you would think that the GOP would want to reach as many young people as possible. Especially when you have 10,000 seats to spare.
Because of the movement, the original amount of tickets available to students went from 50 to 150. Even with extra tickets, this wide gap in ticket distribution, and sense of exclusion, still does not sit well with Miller and #StudentVoicesCount.
Now, the GOP candidates have already earned a reputation for making outrageous statements and claims. While many will be watching on TV to see how much lower they can go, Miller and his movement will be holding their own broadcast right outside of the arena.
With only 150 students getting to actually attend the live GOP debate, Miller says the outside event will give the other students a chance to interact with “political and other thought leaders from around the country.” The live event can be seen from 5-9 p.m. EST on Free Speech TV.
