Buttigieg to appear on Fox News town hall in May

by Joe Concha - 04/23/19 12:02 PM ET

Fox News announced Tuesday that it will host a town hall with 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on May 19.

The live event will take place in Claremont, N.H., at 7 p.m. and will be moderated by “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace.

{mosads}“We look forward to hosting Mayor Buttigieg in New Hampshire and again showcasing our first-in-class journalism and election coverage,” Jay Wallace, Fox News and Fox Business’s president and executive editor, said in a statement.

“We’ve said from the beginning of this campaign that Pete will talk to every audience and meet voters where they are,” campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith told The Hill on Tuesday following the announcement. “For Democrats to win back the White House, we can’t just retreat to our safe spaces, we need to aggressively make our case everywhere — that’s exactly what Pete is doing.”

The Hill reported last week that the Buttigieg campaign was in talks with Fox News about appearing in a town hall event on the network.

Smith, speaking a day after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) appeared on a Fox town hall, told The Hill that “reaching out to the Fox audience is something we intend to do.”

Buttigieg, an Afghanistan War veteran, Rhodes scholar and mayor of South Bend, Ind., is the only 2020 candidate who has appeared on “Fox News Sunday” so far this year.

The presidential candidate has been surging in the crowded Democratic contest. He raised more money in the first fundraising quarter than Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and has surged to third place in many recent polls.

Sanders, 77, appeared in a Fox News town hall on April 15, which was moderated by anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.

The event was watched by nearly 2.6 million viewers, making it the highest rated town hall this year.

Tags Bernie Sanders Elizabeth Warren Fox News Pete Buttigieg