Colorado Libertarian candidate Lily Tang Williams will share the stage at the first U.S. Senate debate on Saturday in Grand Junction between Michael Bennet, the incumbent Democrat, and El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn, his Republican challenger.

It’ll be the first time in memory that a third-party or independent candidate has appeared at a debate sponsored by Club 20 at its fall conference, which marks the unofficial kick-off to the home stretch of the campaign after Labor Day.

Williams qualified for the televised debate this week when August voter registration figures showed that Libertarians surpassed 1 percent on the statewide rolls.

“People are tired of two party duopoly and their corruptions for a long time,” Williams, a Parker businesswoman and immigrant who fled communist China, told The Colorado Statesman on Tuesday night after learning she’d be included in the debate. “This is the year for them to seriously consider third options.”

Last week, she waged a campaign on social media and in the press to urge the Western Slope booster group to bend its longstanding rule setting the 1-percent registration requirement for inclusion in its debates when the party fell 0.023 points – or 822 voters – short in mid-August registration figures. Williams and other Libertarians also mounted a push to encourage voters to affiliate as Libertarian, and it appeared to pay off, with an additional 1,802 voters registered with the party at the end of the month. With 37,551 active Libertarians, the party sits at 1.02 percent of the state’s 3,678,714 total voters.

“If I can be included in the polls, get equal press and participate in all the debates, I think I will have a shot to compete against other candidates,” Williams said. “There are over 34 percent independents in our state, plus many more dissatisfied Democrats and Republicans. I hope they can check me out and vote for me.”

The Bennet and Glenn campaigns declined to comment on the development.

Glenn has already debated Williams, at a Colorado Springs candidate forum held in early June when he was one of five GOP candidates on the primary ballot.

Green Party nominee Arn Menconi will be on the sidelines, as his party’s 12,139 registered voters account for just 0.33 percent of state voters. But the former Eagle County Commissioner – he was a Democrat in those days – plans to be in Grand Junction for Club 20’s two days of meetings and debates. He is set to attend a town hall with Williams on Friday night at Colorado Mesa University, an event scheduled before Williams was invited to the main debate.

Western Slope legislative candidates will be taking the stage at Grand Junction’s Two Rivers throughout the day on Saturday. U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton and former state Sen. Gail Schwartz, his Democratic challenger in the 3rd Congressional District, face off at 5:30 p.m., followed by a debate about Amendment 69, the universal health care ballot proposal known as ColoradoCare, at 6:30 p.m. The U.S. Senate debate is set to start at 7:15 p.m.

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com