The 2022 debate season is off to a slow start. In some cases, it may not start at all.
In 2020, there were more than a dozen televised face-offs between Republican and Democratic Senate candidates, and several were already occurring in mid-September. But this year, it’s still a question whether debates will occur at all in many of the Senate’s top battleground states.
Across the map and on both sides of the aisle, Senate candidates are in a standoff when it comes to debate negotiations, refusing to agree to show up at the same place and time to air their differences before a moderator.
To date, general election debates have been confirmed in just two competitive Senate races, Arizona and Colorado, according to a POLITICO survey of campaigns. The reluctance by both Republicans and Democrats this cycle to get grilled on live television reflects that candidates — even those in tight races — believe there are less risky ways to reach undecided voters.
“The narrative going into most debates by the operatives advising clients is ‘You’re not going to win the election on a debate, but you sure can lose one,'” said Paul Shumaker, a longtime Republican strategist in North Carolina who ran winning campaigns for Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis.
He credits a 2014 debate between Tillis and then-Sen. Kay Hagan as a turning point in that election, after Hagan was forced to admit she had skipped a classified hearing on terrorism to attend a fundraiser in New York. A flood of media attention and attack ads on Hagan followed, and Tillis ultimately ousted the Democratic senator by 1.5 percentage points.
Sen. Kay Hagan and Thom Tillis participate in a live televised debate at UNC-TV studios in Research Triangle Park, N.C., on Sept. 3, 2014.
