I am deeply sad and quite frustrated to have to express my extreme disappointment that the organizers of the Latino Democrats of Prince George’s County decided to maintain their barriers to my participation in today’s Senate candidate forum.
I still very much think it is the spirit of the Democratic Party to include more voices, not fewer, at such early events. If it was a few months before the primary and there were ten candidates, I would understand more. There will come a time to thin the ranks and consolidate, but at this point, with the primary still over half-a-year away and only three headlined candidates, I had hoped LDPGC could realize being more inclusive rather than less, that including me when I was deeply interested in attending and have put more substantive and detailed policy proposals on my site than any other candidate would not be a problem.
There have been few previous major events for candidates to make their case to the voters and in which they can interact with each other, politely challenging each other’s ideas and experience as being more fit or less fit to represent the people of Maryland in the U.S. Senate and carry on Ben Cardin’s tradition of strengthening democracy both at home and abroad.
Trying to limit the voices the people can hear at this point is not only undemocratic, is is also elitist and classist. It discourages, rather than encourages, the free exchange of ideas upon which our Republic was founded. It tries to me make the decisions for the people rather than allowing the people to decide.
As the candidate with the most experience dealing with national-level and international politics and policy, as well as the candidate with the most detailed policy proposals, I should be on today’s stage and the people should hear from me and make up their own minds. Instead and very regretfully, LDPGC has made the decision for you, that you are only to hear from three candidates today. This is wrong and goes against the spirit of our amazing Democratic Party.