Green Party Candidate Andy Ellis Calls for Series of Gubernatorial Debates Featuring All Four Candidates on the November Ballot

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 27, 2026

CONTACT: Andy Ellis
andy@gogreen2026.com

BALTIMORE — Green Party nominee for Governor Andy Ellis today called for a series of gubernatorial debates this fall that include all four candidates on Maryland's general election ballot, with at least one debate hosted by Maryland Public Television.

Four tickets will appear on the November 3 ballot: Governor Wes Moore and Lt. Governor Aruna Miller (Democratic), Dan Cox and Rob Krop (Republican), Andy Ellis and Owen Silverman Andrews (Green), and Cathy White and Cathy Permut (Working Class Party).

"As we have traveled around the state for the last four years, one issue that resonates with almost all voters is the need for more healthy discussion and debate so we can figure out how to get beyond the two-party polarization," Ellis said. "The best way to start that is healthy debates between candidates so that voters can see all their choices."

The campaign is calling for at least four general election debates, each in a different region of the state, so that voters in Western Maryland, the Baltimore region, the Washington suburbs, and the Eastern Shore can all see the candidates side by side. Broadcasters, universities, and civic organizations are all well positioned to host, and every candidate certified to the ballot should be invited to each one.

"If it was up to us, there would be a debate in each county, but we doubt Moore or Cox will agree to that," Ellis said.

The Ellis/Andrews campaign was part of a coalition that supported House Bill 101 in the 2026 General Assembly. The bill, sponsored by Delegate Gary Simmons, would have required Maryland Public Television to invite all ballot-certified candidates in a statewide race to any general election debate it hosts, or lose taxpayer funding. Under current practice, MPT uses a 10% polling threshold to decide who gets on its debate stage. No third-party candidate for governor in Maryland history since the end of the Civil War has met that threshold. In 2022, the only televised gubernatorial debate featured just the Democratic and Republican nominees.

"HB 101 did not pass, but Maryland Public Television does not need a law to do the right thing," Ellis said. "MPT is a state agency with an educational, nonpartisan mission. If it hosts a debate this fall, it should invite all four candidates for governor. MPT says its highest value is the public interest, and we think Maryland taxpayers agree: four candidates on the stage serves that interest better than two."

State law already points in that direction. Section 24-206 of the Education Article, enacted in 1966, prohibits MPT from "presenting biased or one-sided aspects of partisan politics." More than one million Maryland voters, 25% of the electorate, are registered outside the two major parties.

Candidate debates on Maryland Public Television are one part of the campaign's plan for increased civic engagement and a reinvigorated multiparty democracy. The platform also calls for universal debate education in public schools, deliberative town halls, participatory budgeting, and citizen assemblies on major policy questions. Read the full platform at gogreen2026.com/civic-engagement.

About the Ellis/Andrews Campaign

Andy Ellis and Owen Silverman Andrews are running for Governor and Lt. Governor on the Green Party ticket. Get more info at gogreen2026.com.