Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley made a few stops in the metro before heading to Cedar Falls to attend the Iowa Democratic Party’s Hall of Fame dinner tomorrow night.
In a sit-down interview before heading to an round table discussion with immigration leaders on Thursday, O’Malley talked about how his nearly two-month old campaign is going so far, his recently-rolled out immigration policy,
“We are doing this the tried and true way: one person at a time, one household at a time, and that’s the Iowa way,” said O’Malley. “Iowans take their participation in the caucus very, very seriously. They expect to meet each of us, maybe four times, and I’m happy to do that in the next several months. We are going to make our case to all Iowans.”
O’Malley’s campaign financial report came out on Wednesday, and he’s raised more than $2 million since announcing in late May. Many political experts see that as a case for O’Malley’s validity as a candidate and that he should not be written off just yet. O’Malley agreed.
“History has shown that the inevitable front-runner is inevitable right up until the first contest,” said O’Malley. “Whatever challenging candidate is surging in June is not the surging candidate in January. So we’re going to continue to campaign on our views and offering new leadership and getting things done.”
Earlier this week, O’Malley laid out his immigration policy and what he plans to do with the more than 11 million illegal immigrants living in the country. O’Malley said his plan goes further than the Obama administration’s.
“I believe our immigration policies are different than any other president in the past because we are putting it front and center of this campaign,” said O’Malley. “I want to get rid of the practice of mandatory detention. This is a national economic problem, not to mention a national security problem. Everyone living out in the open is what makes our society further. Those 11 million people need to be raised up.”
O’Malley went on to further say that he is not talking about the immigration issue or climate change, high college debt, or any other pillar of his campaign just to fill a demographic checkbox.
“We’re not going to treat these issues as a Sierra Club endorsement, check,” said O’Malley. “Immigration reform is something we’re doing for the Latino vote, check. Affordable college is something we’re doing for the senior in high school, check. We are talking about these issues because they matter and I’m going to keep talking about them on this campaign.”
The former governor of Maryland has been outspoken about GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s remarks about Mexican immigrants.
“I think all of us have a moral obligation in this public arena to push back and speak out against these sort of hateful and racist attacks that he launched on all Mexican-American immigrants,” said O’Malley. “That sort of language has no place in a free society. I hope all candidates speak out, and maybe he can learn to run a more positive campaign.”
