About 70 demonstrators are planning to gather Friday night outside the Tennessee Democratic Party’s big annual fundraiser.
But their beef isn’t with the state party. It’s with the main speaker, Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
A group called #AllowDebate is putting together the protest outside the Jackson Day dinner. Members are upset the Democratic National Committee and Wasserman Schultz, its leader, have sanctioned only six debates during the presidential primary.
They want the DNC to let candidates take part in debates organized by outside groups.
“If you’re interested in digging more deeply into the issues, I think the lack of debates is a huge problem,” says Ben Doernberg, a Boston activist who helped form the group.
Doernberg says the low number of debates has shrunk the Democratic field and kept the candidates from talking about issues like education, the environment and criminal justice.
He also says Republicans are gaining an advantage by holding more debates in their primary. Their candidates get more time before national media than Democrats have received.
The Tennessee Democratic Party is taking no stance on the dispute. It says protesters are free to make their opinions known outside the event, provided they do it peacefully.
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