Speaking to a capacity crowd Tuesday in Jack Morton Auditorium, presidential hopeful and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman told GW students that the political divisiveness and ennui blanketing the country are “not consistent with who we are as blue-sky optimists.”

“We’re problem-solving people!” Mr. Huntsman told the audience at the GW College Republicans-sponsored event. “We confront an issue, we confront a challenge, we find solutions, we make the place better, and we move on. And we leave the world a better place. So being in a funk, being down and discouraged and dispirited as we are today is not natural.”

Fresh from a Monday appearance on “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central, the candidate told the audience that he’d just received the “Colbert bump” in the polls. “All I want is the GW bump, if you can provide that for me,” he said, amid cheering.

Arguing that the nation needs new leadership dedicated to reviving manufacturing jobs at home and revamping foreign policy abroad, Mr. Huntsman emphasized that the states are the “incubators of our democracy” and that, if elected, he would bring together all 50 governors to solve problems such as burgeoning health care costs.

Mr. Huntsman also laid out his plans to revamp the tax code into a simplified three-bracket system, close corporate tax loopholes and repeal the Obama administration’s health care reforms and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

“Banks too big to fail? If you’re too big to fail, what happens? ... If you have a $2 trillion institution go south, we all go south!” he said. “Capitalism without failure isn’t capitalism.”

Mr. Huntsman told the audience of primarily students that unless things change, they will inherit America’s astronomical debt problem. But the necessary foundation for change already exists, he said.

“We have stability, we have the longest surviving constitution in the world, we have rule of law, we have private property rights ... and we have the greatest universities and colleges in the world….We have the most creative energetic, entrepreneurial people on earth.”

Mr. Huntsman also advocated for increasing America’s use of domestically sourced natural gas, rather than continuing to depend on what he called a “heroin-like addiction” to foreign oil sources.

In addition to his terms as governor of Utah from 2005 to 2009, Mr. Huntsman’s background includes stints as ambassador to Singapore and to China, executive-level positions in the Huntsman Corporation, his family’s global chemicals company, and political positions in the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush administrations.

At the end of the speech, Kaitlyn Martin, a junior political science major and chairwoman of the GW College Republicans, named the former governor an honorary lifetime member of the group.

Sinead Casey, a junior political communication major and executive director of GW College Republicans, said the event exceeded her expectations. “There was a lot of excitement leading up to the event,” she said. “We had over 100 people contact us and ask for reserved seating. It’s been [GW College Republicans’] most successful event in this auditorium. We had to turn about 100 people away at the door.”

And speaking about her personal beliefs, Ms. Casey said that although she had previously been interested in Mr. Huntsman’s platform, it wasn’t until the night’s event that she felt ready to back him. “Jon Huntsman has to win. Our party needs him.”