MSNBC and The New Hampshire Union-Leader will hold an unsanctioned Democratic debate in the Granite State on February 4, just five days before the state’s primary.
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A spokesman for Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor who’s polling in the low digits, said the candidate will participate in the debate.
In a statement, DNC chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) said the committee has “no plans to sanction any further debates before the upcoming First in the Nation caucuses and primary, but will reconvene with our campaigns after those two contests to review our schedule”.
There were 25 Democratic primary debates in 2008 and 15 in 2004, both sanctioned and unsanctioned.
The campaigns for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Sen.
Sanders has recently been drawing near or even, overtaking Clinton in some opinion polls as the first voting draws near.
Some Democrats – including presidential candidates Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders – have expressed their dissatisfaction with the small number of DNC-sanctioned debates. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have yet to comment on whether the Democratic candidates will partake in the Union Leader/MSNBC event.
“We are grateful that the Union Leader and NBC have heard the voices of New Hampshire voters who have advocated loud and clear for a final debate since the summer”, the group New Hampshire Debates wrote.
“We have consistently worked with our campaigns to ensure a schedule that is robust and that allows them to engage with voters in a variety of ways, whether through debates, forums, town halls, but also leaving them the flexibility to attend county fairs and living room conversations in states like Iowa and New Hampshire where direct voter contact matters so much”.
“Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd and MSNBC host Rachel Maddow are scheduled to moderate the February 4 debate.
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“Our readers have demanded a debate to help them see who is most fit to be the Democratic nominee for president”, Joseph W. McQuaid, president and publisher of the Union Leader, said in a statement. The state’s largest newspaper was dropped as a sponsor of the Republican debate scheduled February 6 in Manchester, New Hampshire, following its repeated, prominent criticisms of GOP candidate Donald Trump. “They’ve got a reality TV show going on the other side of the aisle, and we have a substantive and robust discussion about how to build on the progress that we’ve made”.
