Grab your popcorn, the debates are on.
A slew of congressional and gubernatorial debates kicked off this week, showcasing the bitter fights between Democrats and Republicans in the most hotly contested contests. Disagreement is at the heart of political debate, but three Senate showdowns in Georgia, Maine, and Michigan on Thursday night underscored how desperate candidates are to bog down their opponents’ favorability heading into Election Day.
Michigan’s smackdown between 2018 GOV candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D) and 2024 nominee Mike Rogers (R) featured the most searing personal attacks of the debate trilogy, with El-Sayed calling the Republican nominee “weak” and “cowardly” and Rogers characterizing the Democrat as a “con man.”
The most heated moment of the night came during a question about whether the federal government should put guardrails on Flock cameras. Rogers argued that past federal surveillance programs—which El-Sayed criticized—“were really, really important in catching people who were suspected of terrorists and being terrorist, committing a terrorist act.” The Republican, who previously alleged that El-Sayed’s family has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda, then insinuated one of El-Sayed’s relatives is on a “watch list.”
“And why would that bother you? Well, if you have someone in your family that might be on a certain watch list,” Rogers said.
“Go ahead and say it,” El-Sayed interrupted, suggesting that Rogers was accusing him of being a terrorist. “You’ve been tiptoeing around it the whole time, just say it.”
In Georgia, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) didn’t hold back against Rep. Mike Collins (R-10) in their first one-on-one, dubbing the GOP nominee a “bigot” several times. Nearly 20 minutes into the debate, Ossoff accused Collins of hiring “half the Third Reich to staff your congressional office” and promoting “Neo-Nazi content online,” referring to social media posts made by a former staffer and his son-in-law.
“If John Lewis were marching today from Selma to Montgomery, Mike Collins would be grabbing a billy club,” Ossoff said later in the debate.
The first two of four debates in Maine spotlighted Sen. Susan Collins’ (R) defensive strategy against former state Senate President Troy Jackson (D), who routinely tied the senator to President Trump in a state he lost three times in a row. During their second debate, the senator put her foot down when Jackson claimed Collins and her husband are “making money, more, off of this war” in Iran.
“That is absolutely outrageous, and you owe me an apology,” Collins said.
“No, you owe me an apology,” Jackson quietly retorted.
Not all states will get to witness these word-wrestling matches. Some Senate battlegrounds—including North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas—will go without debates, part of a trend of candidates refusing to participate. Yet the benefit of these rhetorical throwdowns in an already polarized environment remains to be seen, especially with most voters’ minds already made up.
— Nicholas Anastácio
nanastacio@nationaljournal.com
Programming note: Hotline is off Monday for the holiday. We’ll be back in your inbox on Tuesday, Oct. 13.
