DeWine Debate Watch: Day 22
September 19, 2022
Columbus, OH — As debate season starts to ramp up in the closing weeks and days of the election cycle, Mike DeWine has continued to duck committing to debates across Ohio with Mayor Nan Whaley, even as the Mayor has already publicly agreed and challenged DeWine to a number of debates. DeWine also dodged a debate with his primary opponents earlier this year, signaling that he is scared to defend his record to Ohioans, especially since he’s debated political opponents in the past. It’s ‘DeWine Debate Watch’ Day 22, reminding Ohioans that DeWine won’t even try to make his case to them as he seeks re-election to the highest statewide executive office.
“Mike DeWine clearly knows his record over the last four years of selling out working families in favor of the wealthy and well-connected is not going to be popular with Ohio voters. If DeWine can’t even muster the political courage to tell Ohioans why they should re-elect him, he doesn’t deserve the job and should be held publicly accountable for his cowardice,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.
Ohioans deserve answers from DeWine on a number of key issues, including his promise to ‘go as far as we can’ to rip away reproductive rights, his broken promise to ‘do something’ to combat gun violence in Ohio, his connections to the largest public corruption scandal in state history and his role in the failed redistricting process that produced GOP-gerrymandered maps and cost Ohioans millions of dollars.
Read more from the Lima News here and below:
The Lima News: Republicans plan to skip ODC debates
Precious Grundy
September 17, 2022
- Gov. Mike DeWine and Senate candidate JD Vance, both Republicans, have not accepted invitations from the Ohio Debate Commission.
- The ODC was created in 2018 to create a platform for televised nonpartisan debates for Ohio voters.
- Gov. DeWine is running against Whaley, the former mayor of Dayton. DeWine has not accepted the debate invitation, nor did he accept it during the primary.
- Whaley has agreed to debate DeWine.
- “We owe it to Ohioans to debate the issues in a format where Ohioans can hear an open exchange of ideas,” Whaley said. “DeWine and I disagree on many things — on keeping our communities safe from gun violence and that government should stay out of a woman’s private health care decisions to name a few — but I at least thought he believed in debates that are a core tenet of democracy. I am ready to debate DeWine, and I hope that he changes his mind and will join me.”
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