Colorado’s U.S. Senate race begins in earnest this week with a major surprise: The Libertarian candidate will participate in the first debate.

Lily Tang Williams will join Democrat Michael Bennet and Republican Darryl Glenn at the Club 20 debate Saturday in Grand Junction — a significant opportunity to boost the Libertarian Party’s exposure in Colorado in a year in which voters are looking for alternatives to the major party candidates at the top of the ticket.

The 52-year-old small businesswoman and Chinese immigrant is the first third-party candidate in recent memory to qualify for a major U.S. Senate debate in Colorado, said Libertarian Chairman Jay North.

“I’m going to tell people that I offer a real third option,” Williams said in an interview. “The two-party duopoly in our country has not worked well.”

Williams qualified for the debate after new figures released Tuesday showed the Libertarian Party reached 1 percent of registered voters in Colorado — the threshold to participate in the Club 20 debate, which serves as unofficial kickoff of the fall campaign.

Just days ago, the Western Slope civic organization told Williams that she could not participate after mid-August voter registration numbers put the Libertarian party at 0.977 percent, just 0.023 percentage points shy of the threshold.

The Libertarian Party, which originated in Colorado, now counts 37,551 registered members, or 1.02 percent of the 3.68 million total voters in the state.

The addition of 1,802 voters to its ranks in August is part of a small but steady defection from major parties in recent years, boosted this year by dissatisfaction with the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Floyd Ciruli, an independent Colorado political analyst, said qualifying for the debate is a big step: “If you’re not on the stage, nobody sees you.”

“There’s definitely going to be a group of voters looking for some alternative,” he said. “This year, we are thinking about alternative (candidates), and the growth and direction of the state is weakening political parties. So this is certainly a year for her to shine.”

Christian Reece, Club 20’s executive director, confirmed to The Denver Post that Williams will receive an invite to the debate. Green Party U.S. Senate candidate Arn Menconi did not qualify; his party only represents 0.3 percent of registered voters, the new numbers show.

“With the new voter registration figures released today by the secretary of state’s office, the Libertarian Party now meets the current minimum threshold required to participate in the CLUB 20 U.S. Senate debate,” Reece wrote in an e-mail.

North said the party is constantly registering new voters but said the boost above 1 percent “is mostly happening on its own.”

“I think a lot of people are changing their registration because they are tired of the other two parties,” he said.

Whether Williams will qualify for other prime-time U.S. Senate debates is unknown. Denver’s 9News is using a polling threshold to select the candidates, requiring them to reach 10 percent in two nonpartisan polls. But Williams and Menconi are often not included in independent surveys, making it difficult for them to qualify.

The most recent third-party candidate to make a contested statewide run in Colorado came in 2010 when Tom Tancredo made a bid for governor on the American Constitution Party ticket.

The Club 20 debate is not being broadcast or live-streamed but is expected to receive significant attention on the Western Slope, particularly as conservative-minded voters look for an alternative to Glenn, who is being scrutinized for his failure to launch and double-digit deficit to Bennet, the well-funded incumbent.

In an interview, Williams suggested the debate appearance could be “a game changer” for her campaign and an opportunity to tell her story of coming to America.

On the campaign trail, Williams talks about growing up in a communist country, suffering through poverty and hunger amid the cultural revolution before attending graduate school in 1988 at the University of Texas in Austin with just $100 in her pocket and $1,200 in debt.

Married 26 years with three children, she now manages a real estate investment firm and consulting company with her husband in Parker. The consulting firm helps American companies looking to do business in China.

On the campaign trail, Williams emphasizes her story and criticizes the major parties for perpetuating a large government that violates citizens’ privacy and takes their property.

“This whole system is corrupt,” she said. “Both parties are corrupt.”

Colorado’s Libertarian Voters

The latest voter registration numbers in Colorado show the Libertarian Party exceeding 1 percent of total voters, part of a small but continued shift away from the major parties. The party, which originated in Colorado, now counts 37,551 voters in the state, according to the secretary of state’s office. The map shows the Colorado counties with the highest representation of Libertarian voters.