Update: Green Party VP candidate no longer speaking in Gainesville

Update: Green Party VP candidate Ajamu Baraka's Gainesville event was canceled on Saturday. It's unknown whether the event will be rescheduled. 

The original story is below.

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While most election discussions have swirled around Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Gainesville residents will get a chance to hear from a third-party candidate Monday.

Ajamu Baraka, the vice presidential candidate for the Green Party, will speak at the Alachua County Downtown Headquarters Branch library to speak about his running mate Jill Stein’s platform and answer attendees’ questions.

At 3:30 p.m., he will conduct a Q&A session before discussing policy at 7 p.m., said Shawna Doran, a co-chair of the Alachua County Green Party, which organized the event.

At the meeting, Baraka will discuss public banking, ending institutionalised racism, the living wage and the elimination of student debt, she said.

The meetings will provide students who struggle with college debt a chance to ask Baraka about what he and Stein will do to address their concerns, Doran said.

Of UF’s about 50,000 students, many will wind up leaving school thousands of dollars in debt, she said. For them, this election may decide their economic future.

“If we adjust where our money is coming from and going, then education is paid for,” Doran said.

William “Bill” Warrick III, a member of Veterans for Peace Central Florida, said U.S. politics could use someone like Baraka, who has proved his commitment to serving the public for the past 25 years.

Baraka, a military veteran, has been a community organizer and humanitarian for most of his life, Warrick said.

Stein has said she hopes to redirect funding away from the country’s military to fund renewable energy and education reform, which Warrick said he agrees with.

“We need a person with a real program to move this country in the right direction,” he said.

Ajamu Baraka