Senate hopefuls may be close to deal on debates
U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz both said their campaigns are getting close to a deal on debates for their hotly contested Senate race.
“Both sides are talking,” O’Rourke said after an event in Austin on Tuesday. “I’m confident we’ll work something out. I’m pretty confident we’re going to see debates.”
On WBAP New Talk Radio with host Chris Salcedo, Cruz also confirmed that they were getting close to an agreement.
“He has had his staff members emailing back and forth with my campaign,” said Cruz, a Republican. “They may agree to a couple of debates. They’re going back and forth about dates and this and that.”
Still, Cruz used the radio interview to say that it seems like O’Rourke, an El Paso Democrat, doesn’t want to debate because he refused a set of showdowns Cruz proposed that would have started on Friday night. O’Rourke said he rejected that plan because Cruz’s campaign issued an “ultimatum” in which it set the time, the place, the moderators and what issues could be talked about. O’Rourke said the Cruz campaign was giving him zero input in how the debates would be set up.
O’Rourke specifically has objected to all of the debates being on Friday nights and Cruz getting to dictate topics.
“We just said look, it’s got to be a collaborative process,” O’Rourke said.