Martin O’Malley is planning to tie his struggling Democratic presidential bid to the opposing party when he hosts a gun control event Wednesday, the same day as the third Republican debate.
At the event, which will be held at the University of Colorado Boulder, the former Maryland governor will “challenge every single (GOP) candidate on that stage Wednesday night to value lives over whatever pressure they are getting from the NRA,” Haley Morris, spokeswoman for O’Malley said Tuesday.
O’Malley will be joined by Lonnie and Sandy Phillips, two vocal O’Malley supporters who lost their daughter, Jessica Ghawi, in the 2012 shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.
The event will be announced Tuesday in an email from the Phillips family.
“Just after our conversation, the Republican Presidential candidates will be on stage together again for their third debate,” they write. “Not only do they not support common-sense gun laws, they advocate for laws that would potentially cause more violence, more heartbreak.”
They add, “Let’s make sure every GOP candidate hears us on stage this Wednesday.”
O’Malley had fewer that 1% of support from Democratic voters nationally, according to the most recent CNN/ORC poll, and he’s struggled to get attention as the party’s front-runner, Hillary Clinton, has seen three possible Democratic primary challengers take themselves out of the running in less than a week.
This is not the first time O’Malley will troll Republicans. Earlier this year he held a press conference in the middle of a street in front of Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel, a move that was seen by many as an attempt to capitalize on the media attention around the then-Republican frontrunner.
In the wake of mass shootings in Charleston and across the country, O’Malley has stepped up his push for gun control on the presidential campaign trail. His plan, which was released earlier this year, would require a background check for every gun sale and close loopholes that let internet and private sales go unregulated.
O’Malley has also said, as president, he would look to establish a national firearm registry and crackdown on gun dealers who break the law by revoking their licenses to sell.