Maryland’s Green Party nominee for governor, Andy Ellis, wants a series of gubernatorial debates that include all four candidates on the general election ballot, with at least one of the debates hosted by Maryland Public Television (MPT).
Four tickets will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot for governor and lieutenant governor: 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). Ellis’ campaign wants at least four debates, each to take place in a different part of the state: Western Maryland, the Baltimore region, the Washington Suburbs, and the Eastern Shore.
“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 in a statement. “The best way to start that is healthy debates between candidates so that voters can see all their choices.”
The campaign believes that each region it named has the required resources to host, and that every candidate certified to be on the ballot should be invited to the debates. It expressed skepticism, however, that it would happen.
“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 supported House Bill 101 in the 2026 General Assembly, which would have required MPT to invite all ballot-certified candidates in a statewide race to any general election debates it hosts or lose taxpayer funding. Right now, MPT requires a candidate to reach a 10% polling threshold before they are invited to the debate stage. No third-party candidate for governor in Maryland history since the Civil War ended has reached that threshold.
“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.”
In addition to pushing for inclusion of all four gubernatorial candidates in a debate on MPT, Ellis is pushing for other measures to increase civic engagement and encourage a multiparty democracy. The campaign would like to see debate education in all public schools, “deliberative town halls, participatory budgeting, and citizen assemblies on major policy questions,” according to its platform.
