U.S. Senate candidates Fetterman, Oz to debate in late October

After repeated calls from his challenger for multiple debates in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate election, Democratic candidate and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has agreed to participate in one debate in late October.

Fetterman’s campaign said Wednesday that the Democratic nominee has committed to an Oct. 25 debate hosted by Nexstar, a Texas-based media company that operates nine TV stations in Pennsylvania. Fetterman’s campaign said Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee, previously agreed to participate in the debate.

Over the past few weeks, Oz has called on Fetterman to commit to several debates. Oz committed to seven debates, including one on KDKA-TV on Sept. 6 that Fetterman declined to participate in.

“We said from the start that we’d do a debate, which John reiterated very clearly again last week. Enough distractions, it’s time to talk about the issues,” Fetterman senior adviser Rebecca Katz said in a news release.

The Oz campaign released a statement saying that it has proposed conditions related to Fetterman being allowed to use closed-captioning assistance during the debate. Fetterman suffered a stroke in May. Since, he has said he is dealing with some speech and auditory processing issues. Problems with auditory processing can affect a person’s ability to process what others are saying and respond quickly.

Oz’s campaign said Fetterman requested closed captioning during the debate so he can read comments made by the moderator and Oz. Fetterman also asked for two practice sessions in the studio so he can get accustomed to using the closed-captioning system, Oz’s campaign said.

Oz’s campaign said it wants a moderator at the beginning of the debate to explain that Fetterman is using closed captioning that will result in a delay in responses. The campaign said it also wants the practice-session questions to be different than ones posed during the televised debate and the debate to be extended from 60 minutes to 90 minutes to make up for potential answering delays.

The Nexstar debate was originally scheduled for Oct. 5, and the Oz campaign criticized Fetterman for agreeing to participate in it two weeks before Election Day. It said Oz will push for more debates and ones at earlier dates.

“It’s a debate that Fetterman insisted be delayed until only two weeks remain in the campaign, to keep voters in the dark as long as possible,” Oz campaign manager Casey Contres said in a statement. “Pennsylvanians shouldn’t have to wait until Oct. 25 to hear from their candidates.”

The Fetterman campaign responded by saying that Oz already agreed to a 60-minute debate on Nexstar and that Oz in the past has said he would accommodate Fetterman during his stroke recovery.

“Let’s be real: If we agreed to 10 debates, Oz would be demanding 20. He’s going to keep trying to move the goalposts, because this is his only play,” Katz said.

The Fetterman campaign said that past Senate debates in Pennsylvania typically occurred in mid-to-late October. In 2016, in the race between U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, and Democratic challenger Katie McGinty, the first debate was held on Oct. 17 and the second was on Oct. 24. Pennsylvania didn’t have no-excuse, mail-in voting until 2020.

With Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting, some voters already will have cast their ballots before the late October debate. The Fetterman team acknowledged this, but noted that 83% of ballots in Pennsylvania were cast in the final two weeks leading up to the 2020 election.

The campaign called Oz’s demand for a debate on Labor Day “a stunt” and criticized Oz for trying to cut into Fetterman’s recovery time.

The Nexstar debate will air on nine stations that broadcast to Pennsylvania audiences: WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh, WHTM-TV in Harrisburg/Lancaster/Lebanon/York, WPHL-TV in Philadelphia, WTAJ-TV in Johnstown/Altoona/State College, WBRE-TV and WYOU-TV in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, WJET-TV and WFXP-TV in Erie, and WYTV in Youngstown, Ohio, which broadcasts in Western Pennsylvania.