Students gathered on Thursday, Sept. 22 on Brock Commons to gain signatures on a petition wanting Gary Johnson to participate in the upcoming debate, including William “Bill” Weld to participate in the Vice Presidential Debate held at Longwood University.
The Commission on Presidential Debates decides whether or not a candidate can participate in general election debates. The commission announced on Sept. 16 that Johnson would not participate in the first debate on Sept. 26 at Hofstra University due to his lack of achieving 15 percent support over the course of five national polls. Johnson has hovered around 10 percent, according to nytimes.com.
“If you are on the ballot, if you have a mathematically possibility of winning the Electoral College, if you are on enough ballots to win, in enough states to win, which Gary Johnson has in all 50 states including the DC (District of Columbia). Why shouldn’t he be allowed to debate?” said senior Kyle Dobry, the student protester who put the event together via Facebook.
The protesters handed out flyers regarding the political stances of the Libertarian Party on one side of the flyer in comparison to both the Democrat and Republican parties with the other side displaying an image of both Johnson and Weld.
“When students are actively engaged in the political conversation, the country is better for it. Longwood is proud to have students who are enthusiastic about driving that conversation here on campus,” said Matt McWilliams, Director of Communications & Media Relations.
Skylar Ward, a student protester, believed that Gary Johnson was “a very valuable candidate and not a lot of people know about him.”
“There’s not too many people here right now but we are just trying to hold the signs get people to notice us and figure out why we are here and we can talk to them about how we want everybody represented,” said Rowan Ridge, a student who participated in the protest.
“A lot of the younger generation feel the old left and the old right haven’t really adopted a lot of the issues that a lot of us care about and for that reason we feel this voice needs to be heard,” said Dobry.
In order to protest on Longwood’s campus, the group sought approval from Longwood University Police Department (LUPD) to protest where they did. Protesters also reached out to the Johnson campaign in which they received merchandise to hand out at the protest in addition to more information on how to reach the status of getting both Johnson and Weld into the debates, said Kelsi Forehand, a student protester.
“(Our goal with protesting and signing petitions) To try to get as many signatures that we can and try to get as many people educated about this kind of issue and try to get everyone to realize that there’s more people than just two people,” said Ridge.
The group protested from noon until 2:30 p.m. and gained 210 signatures for the petition, according to Ward.
“As for which candidates appear on stage at the debate, that is entirely a decision made by the Commission on Presidential Debates, not Longwood,” said McWilliams.
Individuals who wish to protest the debate at Longwood are encouraged to do so on the First Amendment Field located at 800 Griffin Blvd., Farmville, Va. The field is open to the general public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Oct. 4, according to longwood.edu
Protesters rallied in favor of Libertarian Party leader, Gary Johnson, in front of Dorrill Dining Hall.
Students at Longwood protesting the VP debate
Student holding sign protesting the VP debate.
