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The three gubernatorial candidates were in Northern Virginia Tuesday night at the gubernatorial debate — only two of them were on the debate stage, however, while the third was removed from the auditorium for interrupting the debate shortly after it began.
Princess Blanding, the Liberation nominee that is on the ballot this November stood up during the debate and began speaking loudly enough that the moderator stopped the debate and it went to commercial break.
“I made it very clear that I am a candidate to let Virginians know that their censorship of my candidacy is racist, it is very sexist, it is very oppressive, it is a form of voter suppression — their goal is to make sure that Virginians don’t know that I exist so they have to choose between the lesser of two evils,” Blanding said after being removed from the debate auditorium.
”They will not allow me to participate in the debates, I made it on the ballot,” Blanding continued. “They have an already-made base, I had to work 10 times harder to get on that ballot just to be told that I am not allowed to debate, I have to come and sit in the audience. I mean that is a bunch of bullshit. That is exactly what it is.”
Blanding told reporters outside of the event that this is the only way she can get media attention for her gubernatorial campaign. “Every time I do an interview, most of the press does not even air it or they will misquote me,” Blanding said. “So guess what, I refuse to play by the rules of the duopoly.”
Blanding, a public school educator, is running against the Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin, a former finance executive worth around half a billion dollars, and the Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe, a party insider who has already been elected governor once.
In the only polling that included the third-party candidate, Blanding received 2% of the support.
She is also at a huge money disadvantage having raised only $21,856 compared to McAuliffe’s $31,833,505 and Youngkin’s $35,304,497, $16,500,000 of which he loaned to himself. “We have been told to trust the system and the system is made to keep third-party candidates oppressed,” Blanding said Tuesday.
The election is taking place on Nov. 2.
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