Undecided voters in Maine, Texas, and Ohio who want to see their Senate candidates debate head-to-head before the midterm elections may be out of luck.
The trio of battleground toss-up contests, which could determine whether Republicans keep control of the Senate, were the remaining competitive races this cycle as of Thursday without a televised debate on the calendar. The sagas have devolved into a perennial tug-of-war, in which candidates accuse one another of ducking the camera lights and, by extension, the voters.
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In Maine, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) accepted invitations to four televised debates in the coming weeks. Democratic challenger Troy Jackson initially had not agreed to any and instead invited Collins to appear at his town halls. Following publication of this story, Jackson on Friday agreed to all four debates but declined for any to take place before early voting starts next month.
In Texas, Democrat James Talarico has agreed to three televised debates from late September to mid-October. Republican rival Ken Paxton has not agreed to any but has stated an intent to participate in at least one.
In Ohio, neither Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) nor former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has agreed to a debate. In 2024, Brown and now-Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), who ousted Brown, both expressed desires to face off on the debate stage but ultimately never did.
In contrast, the equally contentious and competitive Senate races in Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, and Michigan have already held or agreed to hold at least one debate.
Paxton, who has not participated in a debate since being elected Texas attorney general in 2014, will not debate “because he answers to his billionaire handlers,” Talarico said in a statement. The state representative and his campaign have even cut digital ads provoking Paxton to “prove us wrong” that “your billionaire handlers will finally let you onstage” and saying Talarico is “not chicken.”
The Collins campaign made an offer to the Jackson campaign to hold the first debate anytime next week Monday through Thursday, according to Collins spokesman Shawn Roderick. As part of his debate acceptance, Jackson said that all four would need to occur during a two-week period in October after early voting begins Oct. 5.
“It’s great that Troy Jackson has finally agreed to the four debates that we announced eight days ago, but it’s telling that he still refuses to participate in a debate next week,” Collins campaign spokeswoman Blake Kernen said in a statement. “He said on August 25th that he would debate ‘tomorrow.’ Now the first debate won’t be until 40 days later — on October 6th and, most important, after early voting has already begun.”
The New Hampshire Senate race, another competitive seat, will hold its party primaries Tuesday.
The debate jockeying can also be a power struggle for media hosts as much as it is for candidates. National, state, and local outlets, which can involve both broadcast and print reporters, will extend invitations to both sides for a proposed date, time, and place. But unless they can get both candidates to agree to show up, they could lose out on hosting a debate to competing outlets.
It was commonplace in years past for Senate races to feature multiple televised debates in the weeks and months leading up to the November general election. But less so is the case nowadays, with candidates viewing the risks as outweighing the benefits and frequently opting for only one debate, if any.
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In the 2010 cycle, the five most competitive Senate races featured a combined 17 general election debates, an average of a little more than three debates per contest, according to a Brookings Institution analysis. By 2020, that number had dwindled to seven, averaging just over one debate per race.
“In our hyperpolitical world, how campaigns — and candidates — conduct themselves matters,” Brookings wrote in its 2022 analysis. “They thus do democracy a service when they buck the trend and meet on the debate stage — a message they can champion as Americans fret over the future of the nation’s politics and governance.”
