Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Jared Polis spoke to volunteers and students at an event Thursday about the importance of voting, as well as the need to lower the expense of college.
At the Democratic Coordinated Campaign Office, temporarily located on Broadway and Arapahoe Ave., the audience gathered to hear the two members of the Colorado Congressional Delegation talk. Both hope for a win by Hillary Clinton in the upcoming election.
“The stakes are enormously high in this election,” Bennet said. “Everybody says that every election. It really is true in this election. And I would argue that the stakes are highest for the students that are in this room.”
Bennet and Polis focused heavily on student-related issues during the event. After talk of the upcoming election on Nov. 8, the forefront issue was affordability of college and improvement of education in general. Polis talked about his plans if he is re-elected.
“I’m very excited, that first, front and center of this election is college affordability,” Polis said. “I’ve been pioneering efforts on open source textbooks, on dual and concurrent enrollment.”
Both Polis and Bennet emphasized the importance of voting in general.
Polis reminded the audience to vote down the entire ticket, by giving his support to Alice Madden who also spoke at the event. Madden is running for the CU Board of Regents, and has support from Bennet as well.
Though the audience seemed to agree on most issues, Bennet also discussed bipartisanship and his efforts to reach across the aisle and find agreement.
“I think in a time when we’ve had hyper-partisan politics in Washington D.C., it seems like you can’t really get anything done,” Bennet said. “I’ve got a bipartisan record of working with republicans and democrats.”
However, the senator does boast a voting record that matches President Obama’s 96 percent of the time.
Both of the members of Congress are up for re-election this year. Polis faces Nic Morse in the district two election, while Bennet faces Darryl Glenn. Both of the democratic candidates hope to continue the work they started during their current terms if re-elected.
Ballots are mailed on Monday, Oct. 17 for registered Colorado voters. The Democratic Coordinated Campaign Office will help anyone register to vote, regardless of party.
Contact CU Independent Copy Editor Jake Mauff at jacob.mauff@colorado.edu.
