Democratic Maryland governor candidate Wes Moore has declined another invitation to debate his Republican opponnent, Dan Cox. Fox 5 announced last evening that Cox had accepted, but that the deadline to respond to the invitation passed without any response by the Moore campaign. Shortly after the deadline passed, a Moore spokesperson told the Bethesda-based TV station that their candidate's answer was, "no."
In dodging several debates, including one at a prominent HBCU in the state, Moore has said he does not want to give Cox a platform to more widely broadcast his views across the state. That hasn't stopped Cox from doing that on his own this week. The Donald Trump-endorsed Republican has stepped up attacks on Moore for not removing a false claim of being a Baltimore native from his book The Other Wes Moore, and exaggerating details in that biography, and has taken legal action to stop early counting of mail-in ballots ahead of the November election. Cox has received a significant amount of media coverage in recent days as a result.
With a new Goucher poll showing Moore ahead of Cox by 22 points, Moore understandably would like to run out the clock. One cannot make a campaign-damaging gaffe if one does not participate in debates. Critics question how a candidate might perform under the much greater pressure of serving in the office itself, if he or she is unable to debate their opponent. Moore has so far accepted one debate invite, to a forum being broadcast live October 12 by Maryland Public Television.
