Cruz-O’Rourke deal on debates hits snag
Forget negotiating proposed schedule, senator’s team says
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and his Democratic rival Beto O’Rourke have hit an impasse in their debate negotiations that raises questions as to whether the two will face off at all before their Nov. 6 showdown.
Two weeks ago Cruz and O’Rourke agreed in principle on at least five debates — the first being on Aug. 31.
But both camps are expressing frustration with the opponent’s camp for not finalizing a deal. Cruz and his campaign said they are waiting on final confirmation from O’Rourke’s team. O’Rourke campaign manager Jody Casey left messages with Cruz’s campaign manager, Jeff Roe, and said she hasn’t heard back.
Asked this week about the potential for debates, Cruz said the holdup is on the O’Rourke side.
“We’re still waiting for agreement from his campaign,” Cruz said after a rally in Seguin. “We’ve offered to do it and we are waiting for him to say yes.”
O’Rourke requested debates back in the spring. On July 25, Roe sent O’Rourke a letter inviting him to five debates, all on Friday nights between Aug. 31 and Oct. 12. O’Rourke responded to Roe days later with a letter asking him to make a few changes, including putting a debate in El Paso and changing a couple of dates to times other than Friday night when high school football games would conflict.
“I look forward to debating Senator Cruz and am grateful for the schedule you have proposed,” O’Rourke wrote in that letter. “I would suggest only a few small changes.”
But Roe sent back a sharply worded letter saying the debate schedule was not up for negotiation. He said in that letter once they agreed to the five Friday night debates they would work on venue locations and moderators. “As we attempted to make clear, our debate plan isn’t an open negotiation,” Roe wrote.
O’Rourke’s camp said instead of sending letters back and forth, they had their campaign leaders call Roe but have yet to hear from him.
On the campaign trial this week, Cruz insisted that he really does want to debate O’Rourke.
“The reason that I suggested that is that I think we owe that to the voters to have a debate not focused on the mudslinging and personal attacks that so often define politics, but instead focused on substance,” Cruz said.