The Democratic National Committee will pay to fly one DNC member and their guest to next week’s Democratic primary debate, according to an email obtained by the Washington Examiner.
In the email to members, DNC chairwoman and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced a contest where supporters can enter to win a trip to the first Democratic debate hosted next Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nev.
“We are just a week away from the first Democratic Party presidential primary debate of the 2016 election … and we want everyone who cares about our country’s future to watch it!” Wasserman Schultz wrote in the email.
She added, “Just today we launched a contest to fly one lucky supporter and their guest out to the City of Lights for the chance to have a VIP experience and listen to Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Lincoln Chafee, and Jim Webb as they lay out their respective visions for our country.”
Wasserman Schultz also encouraged members to organize debate watch parties in “living rooms, union halls, and bars all across America,” and took aim at the GOP field which has already participated in two primary debates sanctioned by the Republican National Committee.
“The contrast is going to be stark, after watching a Republican field so dug in to their right-wing ways that the entirety of their debate arguments were about moving us backward,” she wrote in the email.
Though the entry form includes an option to make a donation to the DNC, no contribution is required to enter the contest. The committee did not specify when the winner will be chosen, but notes that the VIP experience will include a meeting with Wasserman Schultz and CEO Amy Dacey, as well as special seating during the debate.
O’Malley and Sanders have both criticized the DNC for limiting the candidates to just six debates before the Democratic National Convention next July. O’Malley, the leading critic, has previously described the debate structure as a ploy to benefit Clinton, the Democratic front-runner.
