Lee, Dean cover lots of topics in debate

Tennessee’s candidates for governor took the stage Friday night for the last time before Election Day, finding common ground on issues like enforcement of immigration laws, third-party investigations of fatal police shootings and the state’s involvement with companies supporting Colin Kaepernick.

Republican Bill Lee and Democrat Karl Dean, former Nashville mayor, faced each other for their third debate — the second in one week — this time held at Belmont University’s Troutt Theater.

In a race where few punches have been thrown and debates have remained civil, the nominees began the debate largely agreeing on the first question: as governor, how would they respond to making decisions about death row inmates scheduled to die?

The question came a day after Republican Gov. Bill Haslam granted a 10day reprieve in the scheduled execution of Edmund Zagorski, both answering that they would uphold and follow the law and evaluate the situation on a case by case basis.

On other questions, they agreed that the state should not get involved in public universities’ contracts with companies taking controversial stances, such as Nike, which used Kaepernick — an NFL player who protested police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem — in marketing materials.

They agreed that the state should enforce its law to revoke the business license of companies employing undocumented workers and that the state should consider requiring small busi-