A debate is the one time in a campaign when a candidate has to stand next to the person who wants their job and answer the same questions, live, in front of everybody. Voters get to compare.
Three Republicans on this site's roster have decided voters in their states don't need that.
Greg Abbott: four invitations, no yes
Greg Abbott has been governor of Texas since 2015. He wants four more years. His Democratic opponent, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, has repeatedly called on him to debate.
Texas TV networks have put the invitations on the table. By mid-September, the El Paso Times reported, Abbott had not publicly committed to either a Nexstar/KXAN debate or an NBCUniversal/Hearst debate, and had not responded to Hinojosa's calls for one.
As of this week, the San Antonio Current put it simply: Abbott "has yet to agree to debate his challenger." With 35 days left, the El Paso Times wrote on September 29, the chance of one is "fading quickly," and Hinojosa was calling out Abbott for letting another debate deadline lapse — the paper counted four proposed debates Abbott had not taken up, all of which Hinojosa accepted.
Abbott has given a reason. Asked why he had declined, he told CBS News Texas on September 24 that he travels to multiple cities every day to meet the public, and that in his experience voters want to see candidates in person and ask them questions rather than watch a studio debate. A town hall, though, doesn't put Hinojosa on the stage next to him.
Hinojosa's explanation is her own, and she's the one running against him: "Greg Abbott won't debate me because he is a weak governor with a failed record of rising property taxes, gutting public schools, and giving data centers the biggest tax break in the country."
Ken Paxton: "Of course we are going to debate"
Ken Paxton's campaign made a promise in July. "Of course we are going to debate James Talarico and we look forward to engaging with potential debate hosts," senior adviser Nick Maddux said.
Here is what happened next, according to the Texas Tribune:
- Talarico accepted invitations from WFAA and CNN.
- WFAA said Paxton's campaign stopped answering its messages after August 24.
- When Talarico accepted CNN's invitation on September 2, Maddux rejected it, saying "no Texan wants to watch James Talarico and two of his fellow far-left activists posing as moderators spew left-wing talking points."
So on September 24, Talarico offered Paxton the friendliest ground he could think of: a debate on Fox News, moderated by Bret Baier. Fox News says it will host it "if both candidates commit to appearing" — they're "just waiting on Paxton to agree," Talarico says. By September 24, the Tribune reported, he had committed to no debates at all.
The complaint about "far-left activists posing as moderators" doesn't explain why he hasn't answered Fox.
If no debate happens, WFAA noted, it will be the first time in a quarter century that Texas's U.S. Senate candidates haven't gone before voters in a debate. Even a longtime Republican consultant, Brian Mayes, told WFAA he would advise Paxton to take one: "He (Paxton) is behind in virtually every poll, some as much as like 6, 7 points. You need to debate."
There is a lot Texans might want to ask Paxton about on a debate stage. We've written, for one, about how his own office offered a man who admitted molesting a boy one day in jail — the kind of thing a moderator would ask about.
Tom Cotton: skipping the statewide debates
Arkansas TV will host debates in seven state and federal races October 12 through 15 in Conway. Tom Cotton, who has held his Senate seat since 2015, won't be in any of them, KUAF reported.
Instead, Cotton and his Democratic challenger, Hallie Shoffner, announced earlier this month that they would debate on Salem Media, a conservative Christian news company. KUAF's report includes no explanation from Cotton's campaign for passing on Arkansas TV.
It's not a question of whether Cotton can afford to show up. Newsweek reported this week that Cotton and the groups backing him have outspent Shoffner and her allies on advertising 65 to 1 — about $13.6 million to $208,703.
Why it matters
Voters in Texas and Arkansas are being asked to hand these three men more years in office — Abbott a fourth term as governor, Cotton a third Senate term, and Paxton a six-year Senate term. A debate is one of the few places a voter who doesn't watch cable news or follow politics online can see them answer for their records.
And these three aren't alone: we've already counted at least sixteen Republicans on this site who refused to debate this year.
What we know
Greg Abbott has not agreed to any of the four debates proposed in his race against Gina Hinojosa, saying voters would rather see him in person, and with five weeks left a debate is unlikely. Ken Paxton's campaign promised in July it would "of course" debate James Talarico, then stopped answering WFAA, rejected CNN, and has not taken up a Fox News offer. Tom Cotton is sitting out Arkansas TV's statewide debates and has agreed to face Hallie Shoffner on a conservative Christian outlet.
