2020 presidential candidate Jay Inslee revealed Wednesday that the Democratic National Committee will not dedicate any of their presidential debates to the topic of climate change.
The DNC’s decision comes after five candidates other than Inslee, who is campaigning mostly on climate change, publicly supported the idea, according to Politico.
“The DNC is silencing the voices of Democratic activists, many of our progressive partner organizations, and nearly half of the Democratic presidential field who want to debate the existential crisis of our time,” Inslee said in a statement. “The climate crisis merits a full discussion of our plans, not a short exchange of talking points.”
He also called the decision “deeply disappointing,” and began fundraising off the DNC’s choice.
Today, my team received a call from the Democratic National Committee letting us know that they will not host a #ClimateDebate. pic.twitter.com/uqla9oabbJ
— Jay Inslee (@JayInslee) June 5, 2019
DNC spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa told The Hill, “While climate change is at the top of our list, the DNC will not be holding entire debates on a single issue area because we want to make sure voters have the ability to hear from candidates on dozens of issues of importance to American voters.” (RELATED: 2020 Democrats Private Woo Wall Street While Publicly Snubbing Corporate Cash)
The first of twelve presidential debates is scheduled to take place later this month.
An October Democratic presidential debate will focus solely on LGBT-related matters, including “conversion therapy” restrictions, hate crime retribution and transgender rights.