For politically engaged students, U.S. Senate debate hits close to home
Leading candidates Hickenlooper and Baisley squared off in a campus theater, where MSU Denver students got an up-close view of democracy in action.
Students from across the Auraria Campus filled a King Center theater Oct. 14, as Metropolitan State University of Denver and 9News hosted a debate between Colorado’s U.S. Senate hopefuls.
Incumbent U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, and Colorado state Sen. Mark Baisley, a Republican, squared off in the Eugenia Rawls Courtyard Theatre, where each made his case for representing the state in Washington D.C. while also providing students a free, timely and in-person civics lesson.
Voters will choose between the two candidates in the Nov. 3 mid-term election.
Before the debate, many students who attended, and who volunteered to help set up and assist the candidates and their staffs, said they hoped to hear something new and genuine from the candidates.
“I want to hear something that is a break from the usual,” political talk, said Sebastian Comes, an MSU Denver Journalism major. Comes said that, having been adopted from Guatemala by lesbian parents, he was most interested in the candidates’ views on immigration and LGBTQ rights.
Isaac Manugh, also an MSU Denver Journalism major, with an eye toward becoming a sports reporter, said he wanted to know “how will they represent the state? Do they want to represent me and where I’m from, or is it just something to add to their resume?”
Political Science major Rafa Altayib said she sees students, and others, compartmentalize politics or say they don’t want to get involved in politics. “That’s a shame because you can apply politics to everything in our culture. Politics affect everything.”
Keagan Keener, a Political Science major earning a minor in Sport Management, agreed. She hopes to get more involved in Democratic politics and, in the process, help shed light on issues students and others need to know about. “People need to vote. I see people on social media complaining, and I tell them ‘I want to see you guys at the polls.’”
Altayib said her hope for the upcoming mid-term elections is for “candidates to see people in their community and ask them about their needs and actively support those needs.”
The debate itself, moderated by Kyle Clark and Marshall Zellinger of 9News, showcased stark differences between the two candidates on issues ranging from regulating AI to support for President Trump.
On healthcare, for instance, Hickenlooper criticized President Trump’s legislation, which he said will result in hundreds of thousands of Coloradans losing health coverage they now have through Medicaid. Hickenlooper said he favors universal health care, calling it a “right, not a privilege.”
Baisley countered that those losing Medicaid coverage are in the country illegally, though undocumented immigrants aren’t eligible for Medicaid under federal and state law. He said government has no place in healthcare at all.
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Both candidates advocate for changes in education, and both acknowledged they have no specific plan for how to accomplish those changes. Baisley said he opposes public schools and would replace them with private schools but acknowledged the transition could be complicated.
Hickenlooper said he would like to expand student aid for college. But when asked how he would do that without raising taxes, he likewise said he wasn’t sure how to accomplish that.
Hickenlooper, a geologist who founded one of Colorado’s first brewpubs, served two terms as Denver mayor, then two terms as Colorado governor, before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2021.
Baisley, a former aerospace engineer who leads a software company, was elected to the Colorado State House of Representatives in 2018 and has served in the Colorado State Senate since 2022.
In addition to moderating the debate, 9News journalists also interviewed several MSU Denver students.
After the debate, several students said what they heard didn’t change who they planned to vote for. But they were impressed by the civility both men maintained, and a few said they thought the debate was won by Kyle Clark.
“That was really cool,” said Joseph Alires. “I definitely learned about what it means for politicians to prepare and be willing to go to a debate.”
But, Alires said, “As a Political Science major, I was amazed at Kyle Clark’s journalism skills. I’m thinking of changing my major to Journalism.”
