I didn't see any mention of who was sanctioning/organizing these debates. Generally, it is the responsibility of the state party (or the DNC in national races) to organize debates. It's not up to a challenger (or an incumbent) to organize personalized side debates.

That being said, I always support debates in state primaries (even at lower level races) - so I would've supported Gabbard's challenger(s) in calling for a debate. But I would take that up with the state party (just as it was taken up with the DNC in 2016) as to why debates aren't being organized/scheduled.


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