Several Colorado candidates have not participated in debates leading up to the midterm elections.
After the primary elections, Denver7 and its news partners reached out to Victor Marx, the Republican candidate for governor, Gabe Evans, the incumbent Republican congressman whos running for re-election to represent Congressional District 8, and Manny Rutinel, the Democratic candidate running for Congressional District 8 but all candidates declined debate invitations.
Marx and Rutinel did participate in individual candidate interviews.
Given our high political polarization, candidates but also office holders are really trying to avoid those situations where they're dealing directly with constituents, particularly with potentially hostile constituents, Dr. Robert Preuhs, Metropolitan State University of Denver professor and chair of political science said. Controlling the messaging is really important, and you end up going into an audience, particularly a debate that may open up questions to the audience, and that really creates a lot of uncertainty. Something candidates don't want to have to deal with.
According to an ABC News analysis, this year, 36 governors are up for election, 21 of those races will not see a debate between the two major-party candidates.
The analysis also found of the 35 senate seats up for election in 2026, 21 of them have no debate scheduled between the major candidates.
I'm not pleased, personally, with candidates not wanting to debate, but there's a lot of strategic decision-making, and when it comes down to it, particularly in races that we presume to have clear front runners and folks that are a little bit behind in the polls, there's not really an incentive for particularly front runners to agree to debate. They can have a gaffe and fall in the polls, Preuhs said.
Preuhs said historically debates have been a way to create more accessibility to candidates for voters.
We've had a long history, and prior to wide access to media coverage, you know, candidates back in the 1800s would go out, particularly for local and statewide elections, and actually hold debates out in the public, out in the outdoors, and make sure that their case was heard, Preuhs said. And part of that was simply access and providing information to a lot of voters that needed to be exposed to those discussions that weren't you know, either couldn't read or couldn't have access to some newspaper or other information sources.
Preuhs said candidates declining to take part in debates can deprive voters of an opportunity to ask candidates direct questions.
I think it fits in fairly well with an overall feeling or sense that governments and elected politicians are distant from us, right? And we saw some of that in the primaries, Preuhs said. Were electing individuals. We want to see what they look like, we want to see how they sound. We want to see how confident they are, as well as kind of judging on the merits of their policy proposals.
Preuhs said a bad debate performance can have serious consequences and pointed to former President Joe Bidens 2024 debate performance.
Pruehs said candidates are opting for social media instead to be able to control the messaging with fewer risks.
