Capitol Beat News Service reported Wednesday that, after weeks of back-and-forth political posturing, Georgia’s U.S. Senate candidates have agreed to a televised debate.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Republican challenger Herschel Walker will meet Oct. 14 in Savannah.
After the two sides agreed to the debate late Tuesday, Warnock upped the ante by inviting Walker to at least one additional debate in Macon or Atlanta.
“Reverend Warnock is eager to speak to Georgians about his work on their behalf and remains hopeful Herschel Walker will do right by Georgians, get on a debate stage at least one other time … and explain his positions to them,” said Quentin Fulks, Warnock’s campaign manager.
“I’m glad to see that Raphael Warnock has agreed to face the voters,” Walker countered. “I’m looking forward to October 14th so the voters can see the contrast between us.”
Georgia Public Broadcasting has scheduled a Senate debate Oct. 16 at its Midtown Atlanta studios, but Walker may not appear without a live audience, leaving the possibility open of Warnock debating an empty podium.
It is a disgrace that we have to go to these lengths to hear from our candidates. Georgia deserves better.
We are deciding which of these men to send to Congress for the next six years. After all the nonsense of the jungle primary in the wake of Johnny Isakson’s resignation – including Kelly Loeffler’s brief but dramatic interim term – we definitely need to get this one right.
Our citizens need to be able to hear from these men outside of the environment that is the pre-packaged commercial running nonstop on all our channels. Those commercials are all overdramatic and overproduced. I want to hear it from the horse’s mouth.
The makeup of the U.S. Senate could be crucial to our next two years and to the future outcome of our 2024 presidential election. It is unacceptable for any public official who answers to all of us to back down from an honest debate.
Where would Abraham Lincoln have been without a debate? We could have been stuck with Stephen Douglas as president, and that could have changed all of history.
So let’s get together on this and everybody show up at the appointed time. These candidates should be proud and eager to speak to us.
We are their bosses, after all.