Fmr. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley in Manchester on May 13
First on NH1 News: O'Malley back to NH July 8
CONCORD – Martin O’Malley will return to the first-in-the-nation primary state on July 8, NH1 News has learned.
The visit to New Hampshire will be O’Malley’s third since he announced his Democratic presidential campaign on May 30 in Baltimore, the city where he served as two-terms as mayor before serving eight years as Maryland governor.
O’Malley is scheduled speak to the Greater Derry/Londonderry Chamber of Commerce at Halligan Tavern in downtown Derry. Sources close to the O’Malley campaign tell NH1 News that other events will be added to the candidate’s itinerary.
O’Malley came in third place in a Saturday straw poll conducted by the Plaistow Democratic Town Committee. He had 14% of the votes, trailing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (52%) and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont (33%).
But he stood at 3% in a poll of likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire that was released last week by Suffolk University, trailing Clinton (41%), Sanders (31%), and Vice President Joe Biden (7%), who hasn’t ruled out a presidential bid but who hasn’t taken any real steps towards launching a White House campaign. He was also a distant fourth place in a recent survey of Granite State Democratic Primary voters conducted for Morning Consult.
O’Malley speaks out following Charleston shootings
O’Malley’s been very vocal since a 21-year old white man shot and killed nine people Wednesday at a historic black church in Charleston. Sunday O’Malley became the first presidential candidate to call for South Carolina to take down its Confederate battle flag.
In a speech Sunday to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in San Francisco, O’Malley said "if the families of Charleston can forgive, can let go of their anger, is it really too much to ask the state government officials of South Carolina to retire the Confederate flag to a museum? America must do better."
On Friday, O’Malley stepped up his calls for new national gun control legislation.
I'm pissed that after working hard in the state of Maryland to pass real gun control—laws that banned high-magazine weapons, increased licensing standards, and required fingerprinting for handgun purchasers—Congress continues to drop the ball,” O’Malley wrote in an email to supporters.
“What we did in Maryland should be the first step of what we do as a nation,” O’Malley added, as he called for a national assault weapons ban and stricter background checks.
