As the midterm election cycle enters its final stretch, candidates are bracing to face one another on the debate stage to give one last pitch to sway voters to support them in November. But not all candidates are stepping up to the podium.
While some Republican candidates trailing their opponents in polling have been eager to participate in debates, a handful of Democratic front-runners have been wary of facing their GOP counterparts on the stage. As a result, the debate schedule between now and Election Day has been left uncertain as candidates have either resisted committing to debates or have dropped out altogether.
BOLDUC AND HASSAN HOLD LITTLE-PUBLICIZED NEW HAMPSHIRE SENATE DEBATE
In the New Hampshire Senate race, Republican candidate Don Bolduc has committed to appear in at least seven debates against Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), who has shied away from facing her opponent. Hassan backed out of a debate last week after requesting organizers to allow candidates to appear separately onstage.
“Public officials owe it to the people they are seeking to represent to make the case directly and answer their questions, not hide behind attack ads sponsored by special interests in Washington,” Bolduc said in response. “This is the action of a desperate politician who knows she is going to face the music from voters in a few short weeks and her time in politics is running out.”
Hassan did appear in a little-publicized debate with Bolduc on Tuesday, facing off against the Republican in a closed-off event that featured one moderator and no audience. The two are scheduled to debate again on Oct. 27 at noon.
The Pennsylvania Senate race also saw hesitation from Democratic front-runner John Fetterman, who spent much of the summer avoiding the campaign trail as he recovered from a stroke he suffered in mid-May. Ultimately, Fetterman agreed to one debate against GOP challenger Dr. Mehmet Oz on Oct. 25, less than two weeks before Election Day.
Fetterman has been hesitant to debate his opponent because his stroke has left him with speech difficulties, noting in early September that his stroke recovery would determine the conditions under which he would agree to any debates with Oz. Although he committed to at least one debate, the Democrat did not participate in five others scheduled throughout September and October, prompting criticism from Oz.
“Another day, another debate dodged by John Fetterman. No doubt Fetterman’s campaign will try to lie and say they accepted the Nexstar debate … except they didn’t,” said Brittany Yanick, communications director for Oz’s campaign in reference to a debate that was scheduled to take place on Oct. 5. “John Fetterman will try anything to deceive and lie to the voters about his health and avoid tough questions about his past record of pardoning convicted murderers against the wishes of families and law enforcement as well as his push to decriminalize heroin in Pennsylvania.”
In Arizona, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs has also refused to debate her opponent Kari Lake, a Trump-backed Republican who has centered much of her campaign on denying the results of the 2020 election. Hobbs has defended that decision, which several Democrats have called a mistake, by arguing Lake would only use the platform to spread election misinformation.
“Look, Kari Lake has made it clear time and time again that she’s not interested in having substantive, in-depth conversations about the issues that matter to Arizonans,” Hobbs told CNN. “She only wants a scenario where she can control the dialogue, and she’s refused to sit down in a one-on-one, lengthy conversation to really clarify with Arizonans where she is on the issues.”
Hobbs had asked for the debates to be held as separate, moderated interviews for both candidates, but that request was denied.
Hobbs isn’t the only Democrat to drop out of debates entirely. California Democratic state Assemblyman Rudy Salas unexpectedly dropped out of a debate against Rep. David Valadao last week, saying he would not appear onstage due to his frustrations over a campaign ad alleging he supported raising prescription drug prices. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) also pulled out of a debate against GOP opponent Yesli Vega, citing concerns about one of the moderators.
There have also been a handful of Republican candidates who have hesitated to participate in high-profile debates, such as Gov. Mike DeWine, who refused to debate his GOP primary opponents as well as his Democratic challenger Nan Whaley.
Herschel Walker, who is running for Senate in Georgia, has also been wary of facing Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) on the debate stage, especially after allegations surfaced that the former NFL star paid for his former girlfriend to get an abortion in 2009. Walker committed to only one debate before the midterm elections next month, eliciting criticism from Warnock.
“How can we expect Herschel Walker to stand up for Georgians in the Senate if he refuses to debate on stage?” Warnock said in a tweet.
Nevada also stands out, as it’s the only battleground state with a Senate race that does not have any debates on the schedule — despite being an election that could determine the shift of power in Congress come November. However, neither Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto nor Republican Adam Laxalt has committed to a debate, with both sides blaming the other.
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“The senator was eager to debate and accepted three statewide debates that, unfortunately, her opponent decided he would not participate in,” Cortez Masto’s spokesman Josh Marcus Blank said, according to NBC News.
Laxalt pushed back on those assertions, arguing it was Cortez Masto who was at fault.
“I have accepted televised, statewide debate offers with two respected, neutral Nevada media outlets: Sinclair Broadcast Group, which runs the Las Vegas and Reno NBC Stations, and Nevada Newsmakers,” Laxalt told the outlet. “We hope that Catherine Cortez Masto will stop hiding and agree to at least one of them.”
