The U.S. Senate campaign of U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin announced Tuesday it has agreed to two televised general election debates that would, if held, be broadcast statewide.
On Tuesday Slotkin (D-Holly) agreed to an Oct. 9 debate on WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, and an Oct. 14 debate on WXYZ-TV Detroit.
“Rep. Slotkin is looking forward to being on the debate stage and giving voters a clear picture of both candidates and their very different visions for Michigan’s future,” Austin Cook, communications director for the Slotkin campaign, said in a statement. “This is consistent with previous statewide elections in Michigan, and we’re pleased that both of these debates will be televised statewide so voters in every part of Michigan can engage. We hope to see Mike Rogers there.”
Rogers campaign spokesperson Chris Gustafson in a statement said the former representative looks forward to debating Slotkin and contrasting their records.
“Mike Rogers is excited and ready to debate Slotkin and expose her long and consistent record of prioritizing personal ambitions at the expense of Michigan workers,” Gustafson said. “We’ll share more as we work to ensure as many voters as possible across Michigan have an opportunity to tune in.”
The debates Slotkin agreed to are different than the three that the Michigan Debate Task Force organized and sent out invites to Slotkin and Rogers earlier this month.
Proposed debates for Sept. 12, Oct. 10 and Oct. 22 were organized by the Michigan Debate Task Force (See Gongwer Michigan Report, August 7, 2024).
A message left with David Dulio, director of the Center for Civic Engagement at Oakland University, who has been helping coordinate the proposed task force debates, was not immediately returned.
In 2018, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) debated Republican challenger John James twice in October, once on public television in Grand Rapids and before the Detroit Economic Club (See Gongwer Michigan Report, October 15, 2018).
During the 2020 campaign, U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Township) and James, running for a second time, did not agree to any debates.
They did participate in a Detroit Regional Chamber event that year, during which they had separate conversations onstage to discuss policy views on several topics (See Gongwer Michigan Report, September 16, 2020). In October 2020, they appeared separately on WDIV-TV’s “Flashpoint” program and attacked each other’s stances on health care (See Gongwer Michigan Report, October 19, 2020).
– By Nick Smith
