The candidates for Ohio’s open Senate seat have agreed to participate in two debates ahead of November’s election.
Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan and Republican candidate J.D. Vance are slated to debate on Oct. 10 in Cleveland at an event hosted by WJW Channel 8, followed by WMFJ’s debate in Youngstown on Oct. 17, Cleveland.com reported.
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The agreement follows objections from Vance’s camp over a proposed Oct. 12 debate slated to be hosted by the Ohio Debate Commission. His campaign rejected the debate over concerns of partisanship, pointing to the commission executive director’s former state legislative bid as a Democrat and previous donations to Ryan.
“The whole Ryan posture that we’re avoiding the debates, we’ve tried to deal with them directly from the very beginning,” Vance told Cleveland.com. “And it’s only now that they realize we’re not going to play ball with the Ohio Debate Commission that they’ve finally come to the table. But I think we’ll get it figured out.”
Vance has so far declined a proposed Oct. 4 debate in Hamilton.
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Recent polling indicates the race for retiring Sen. Rob Portman’s (R) seat is neck and neck, with a Marist survey released on Wednesday showing Vance with just a 1-point lead over Ryan. The candidates polled at 46% and 45%, respectively, with 9% undecided.
