Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich penciled in a visit to South Florida during a forum with Miami Dade College students on Jan. 25, just in time for Florida\u2019s primary elections.<\/p>\n
Both 2012 Republican presidential contenders participated in the Meet The Candidates question-and-answer session held at Univision Studios and MDC Wolfson Campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cMDC is a most important destination for any world leader that comes to Miami,\u201d said College president, Eduardo Padr\u00f3n. \u201cThey know that this institution is a catalyst for everything important that happens in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Univision News along with MDC sponsored the forum.<\/p>\n
Univision journalist, Jorge Ramos, hosted the discussions with Gingrich and Romney and opened the remaining half of the discussion with the presidential hopefuls to students and community members for a question and answer session.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved the questions that were asked, they were great,\u201d Ramos said. \u201cI wish that the format of these debates would be much more open so that [students] could have a conversation with the candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the morning, an audience comprising more than 30 MDC students gathered for a discussion with Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House. Gingrich spoke about issues concerning the Hispanic community.<\/p>\n
West Campus Student Government Association representative Genesis Angulo asked Gingrich if he supported in-state college tuition for students born in the United States to undocumented parents. Those students currently pay out-of-state tuition.<\/p>\n
Gingrich said he was unaware of the existing problems that have led American-born students with undocumented parents to pay out-of-state tuition. But he said he strongly supports the idea that a students status as an American-born citizen should allow them to get in-state tuition.<\/p>\n
After the discussion ended the doors of the Wolfson Campus Auditorium opened for a discussion with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely liked that [Romney] is pro-business. I thought that was great,\u201d said Wolfson Campus student Jeremy Randolph. \u201cI think that\u2019s what we need, definitely a revitalization of our economy. However, I didn\u2019t really like how he was poking at Obama saying he gives corporate handouts. I don\u2019t think that is necessarily true.\u201d<\/p>\n
President of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Javier Palomarez was impressed by the quality of questions and engagement by MDC students.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could tell that these were students who take their education very seriously and take the future of the nation very seriously,\u201d Palomarez said.<\/p>\n
Univision News invited all four GOP presidential candidates. However, Ron Paul declined to attend and Rick Santorum pulled out a day before the discussion.<\/p>\n
Padr\u00f3n assured that this was only be the beginning of things to come during the 2012 election battle.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Students] having the opportunity to see the Republican candidates and seeing the president, which I\u2019m sure will come [to MDC] before the election, will give [students] enough information to make [their] choice,\u201d Padr\u00f3n said.<\/p>\n
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney won the Florida primary election on Jan. 31 by a 14 percentage-point margin.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich penciled in a visit to South Florida during a forum with Miami Dade College students on Jan. 25, just in time for Florida\u2019s primary elections. Both 2012 Republican presidential contenders participated in the Meet The Candidates question-and-answer session held at Univision Studios and MDC Wolfson Campus. \u201cMDC is a most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":321,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news"},"yoast_head":"\n