{"id":1628298,"date":"2022-08-31T12:47:39","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T16:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1628298"},"modified":"2022-08-31T12:48:03","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T16:48:03","slug":"democrat-candidates-in-key-battleground-states-are-ducking-debates-with-their-gop-opponents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrat-candidates-in-key-battleground-states-are-ducking-debates-with-their-gop-opponents\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrat Candidates In Key Battleground States Are Ducking Debates With Their GOP Opponents"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrat-candidates-in-key-battleground-states-are-ducking-debates-with-their-gop-opponents%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1628298&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Democrat candidates running in key U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races across the country are avoiding debates with their Republican opponents in the leadup to the 2022 midterm elections.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Pennsylvania\u2019s Democrat candidate for U.S. Senate John Fetterman announced that he would not be participating in a televised debate scheduled for Sept. 6 against his Republican opponent Mehmet Oz, citing his ongoing recovery from a stroke as part of his justification for the decision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs I recover from this stroke and improve my auditory processing and speech, I look forward to continuing to meet with the people of Pennsylvania. They\u2019ll always know where I stand,\u201d he said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JackPosobiec\/status\/1564789230366330886?s=20&amp;t=zK-sYYZ8tMs94eO2VWS34g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Since his stroke in May, Fetterman has had limited public appearances on the campaign trail, with the Pennsylvania Democrat producing incoherent ramblings during speeches to voters.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><\/figure>\n<p>In his statement, Fetterman also cited his hurt feelings over comments from the Oz campaign as his main reason for not participating in the debate. Earlier on Tuesday, the Oz team had put out a list of \u201cconcessions\u201d for the debate to accommodate Fetterman, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2022\/08\/30\/john-fetterman-declines-early-september-debate-against-mehmet-oz-for-stroke-recovery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">included<\/a> an offer to \u201c\u2018pay for any additional medical personnel\u2019 that Fetterman might need on standby\u201d and \u201cbathroom breaks and allowing him to have all of his notes on hand, along with an earpiece to obtain answers from his staff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s statement from Dr. Oz\u2019s team made it abundantly clear that they think it is funny to mock a stroke survivor. I chose not to participate in this farce,\u201d Fetterman said. \u201cMy recovery may be a joke to Dr. Oz and his team, but it\u2019s real for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will not be participating in a debate the first week of September, but look forward to having \u2026 a real conversation on this once Dr. Oz and his team are ready to take this seriously,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Fetterman has yet to commit to any of the five moderated debates <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/oz-demands-debates-fetterman-slowly-returns\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">proposed<\/a> by Oz earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>The Oz campaign has since released a <a href=\"https:\/\/doctoroz.com\/press\/dr-oz-campaign-responds-to-fettermans-refusal-to-debate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">press release<\/a> on the matter, with Communications Director Brittany Yanick saying that Fetterman\u2019s campaign \u201cis insulting the intelligence of Pennsylvania voters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe heard John Fetterman won\u2019t debate Oz in the \u2018first week of September\u2019. Ok, so when will he debate?\u201d Yanick said. \u201cHe won\u2019t ever say \u2013 not even in his latest whiny statement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Fetterman campaign did not respond to The Federalist\u2019s inquiry as to whether Fetterman believes Pennsylvania voters deserve to see him and Oz debating the issues most pertinent\u00a0to the commonwealth on live television.<\/p>\n<p>Pennsylvania is hardly the only state where Democrat candidates are seemingly ducking their Republican opponents\u2019 debate challenges. In Arizona, the state\u2019s Democrat candidates for governor and U.S. Senate, Katie Hobbs and Mark Kelly, are both reportedly attempting to create an issue out of existing debate format rules to avoid debating their respective GOP opponents, Kari Lake and Blake Masters. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sbarchenger\/status\/1563335266151976962\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According<\/a> to Arizona Central reporter Stacey Barchenger, Hobbs was supposed to RSVP for the [Citizens Clean Elections Commission (AZCCEC)] &#038; [Arizona PBS] gubernatorial debate\u201d on Aug. 26, but \u201cat 5:24 p.m., her campaign manager sent an email to AZCCEC asking for a meeting to discuss changes to the format\u201d before fully committing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAsking for changes, Hobbs\u2019 campaign manager Nicole DeMont cited the primary debate among GOP candidates for #AZgov she said \u2018turned Arizona into a national laughing stock, and Secretary Hobbs has too much respect for this state and its voters to participate in such an event,&#8217;\u201d Barchenger reported in a tweet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would like to find a time to meet to discuss changes to the proposed format that will avoid another circus like the GOP primary debate and will lead to a substantive debate of ideas between the candidates,\u201d DeMont reportedly added.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"iHnilIoap4MVWmh270zbZ1pTuYCO5tANqRQKqD8Hx3CXrwJk6brPYsZIycOmv0RaGxSwT2\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;We would like to find a time to meet to discuss changes to the proposed format that will avoid another circus like the GOP primary debate and will lead to a substantive debate of ideas between the candidates,&#8221; DeMont wrote. <\/p>\n<p>So the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AZgov?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AZgov<\/a> debate saga continues. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Stacey Barchenger (@sbarchenger) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sbarchenger\/status\/1563335269129920512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 27, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In the state\u2019s U.S. Senate race, Democrat candidate Mark Kelly has similarly been raising complaints over AZCCEC\u2019s current debate format, with Kelly\u2019s campaign manager <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/brahmresnik\/status\/1563592971001376768?s=20&amp;t=Q1m0ke3f9xiDlegNihV5zw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reportedly<\/a> saying in an email to the group that the campaign has \u201csome concerns about the suggested format\u201d after \u201cseeing [the] recent Republican gubernatorial debate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Debate organizers have given Hobbs and Kelly a Friday deadline to accept or decline the invitation to the October debate, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/brahmresnik\/status\/1564469714083987456?s=20&amp;t=laQYecwdzd3_iHenfvuShQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to<\/a> local Arizona reporter Brahm Resnik, who also confirmed that both Lake and Masters have already agreed to participate.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrat candidates running in key U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races across the country are avoiding debates with their Republican opponents in the leadup to the 2022 midterm elections. On Tuesday,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1628298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1628298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1628298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1628298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1628298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}