Cruz, O’Rourke set schedule for debates
Senate candidates will duel 3 times before midterms
Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Beto O’Rourke agree to three debates — hourlong clashes in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio — before the Nov. 6 election.
Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Beto O’Rourke will debate after all.
The dueling U.S. Senate campaigns issued statements Friday evening verifying that they have agreed to three debates before the Nov. 6 election. They will be in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio and each will be an hour long.
The first debate will be Sept. 21 at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and focused on domestic policy. The second debate will be at the University of Houston and be a town hall style-debate. The final debate will be in San Antonio at a studio to be determined.
Just a few weeks ago, it looked like debates would be unlikely in what has become one of the most competitive U.S. Senate races in the nation. Both O’Rourke and Cruz had issued calls for debates, but the two sides couldn’t agree on details. Cruz wanted five debates, and only on Friday nights, in cities and with moderators he chose without input from O’Rourke. O’Rourke wanted more debates, including one entirely in Spanish, which Cruz doesn’t speak as fluently as he would like, he has said.
Debate negotiations picked up again in late August when both Cruz and O’Rourke in separate interviews acknowledged they were trying again to reach an agreement.
Cruz, a former college debate champion, has 20 major debates under his belt from the 2016 presidential campaign and from 2012 when he faced a large Republican field for the Senate, including Don-
ald Trump. O’Rourke has never debated on a statewide stage but is getting something that challengers rarely get, an agreement to debate with the incumbent. Many of the other Democrats running statewide have yet to get debate deals with their Republican rivals.
The agreement to debate comes as polls have shown a closer race than many expected at the start of 2018. O’Rourke, an El Paso congressman since 2012, has relied heavily on social media to grow his campaign into one that has landed him on national talk shows. Cruz, once a prohibitive favorite and the runner-up to Trump for the 2016 GOP nomination for president, is now telling supporters that they face a real battle in November in this traditionally Republican state and that they need to make sure conservatives turn out in big enough numbers to match Democratic anger against Trump.