What do you do when you’re largely self-funding your White House bid but you need to demonstrate broad grass-roots support to be able to participate in the all-important televised candidate debates this summer?
If you’re former Maryland congressman John K. Delaney (D), you appeal to voters’ sense of generosity – and try to strike a bargain.
Delaney is telling supporters that for every new donor who contributes to his campaign, he’ll donate $2 to the nonprofit organization of their choice.
“This prevents the media and the [Democratic National Committee] from picking your 2020 Democratic candidate for you!” Delaney wrote in a tweet.
The DNC is sponsoring two presidential candidate debates this summer, one in June that’s airing on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo, the other in July on CNN. Due to the high number of candidates, the debates are expected to take place over the course of two nights each time.
To participate in the debates, candidates must hit 1 percent support in three separate polls, rack up 65,000 unique donors and a minimum of 20 donors per state in at least 20 states.
Delaney is offering 11 charitable organizations for donors to choose from: Planned Parenthood; Wounded Warriors; Fisher House; Environmental Defense Fund; Human Rights Campaign; Everytown for Gun Safety; NAACP Legal Defense Fund; St. Jude’s Hospital; Feeding America; CARA Dilley Pro-Bono Project; and the ASPCA.
Josh Kurtz
Founding editor
Founding Editor Josh Kurtz is a veteran chronicler of Maryland politics and government. He began covering the State House in 1995 for The Gazette newspapers, and has been writing about state and local politics ever since. He was an editor at Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, for eight years, and for eight years was the editor of E&E Daily, which covers energy and environmental policy on Capitol Hill. For 6 1/2 years Kurtz wrote a weekly column on state politics for Center Maryland and has written for several other Maryland publications as well. Kurtz regularly gives speeches and appears on TV and radio shows to discuss Maryland politics.
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