Down with the debate dodgers

Friday night brought Georgia voters the sole debate in the contest between Herschel Walker and Senator Raphael Warnock, with the pair meeting on stage at the J.W. Marriott in Savannah. Thanks to Axios, you could play debate bingo if you wanted to, thereby officially informing your friends you have the saddest social schedule imaginable.

Debate dodging has been a major feature of the 2022 cycle. In Arizona, Democrat Katie Hobbs has said she’s too busy to debate her gubernatorial opponent Kari Lake — who as it happens is far more telegenic than she is. In Pennsylvania, Democrat John Fetterman has agreed to just one Senate debate with Republican Mehmet Oz, with a long series of stipulations about closed captioning and multiple practice opportunities for the setup.

The moment for Democrats is one of disadvantage, and they know it. Incumbent Senator Mark Kelly’s debate with Arizona challenger Blake Masters was a ruthless win for the Republican, and Democrat Tim Ryan’s stumbles against J.D. Vance in Ohio provided strong closing momentum for the conservative populist. Democrats seem reluctant to be forced onstage — even with, in nearly all cases, the moderators leaning more in their direction.

One of the best political developments in recent years has been the utter collapse of the Commission on Presidential Debates. The Republican National Committee voted unanimously to leave the commission earlier this year, after a series of debates run by openly biased moderators came to a head in the Steve Scully scandal, leading to the cancellation of a presidential debate and ultimately the longtime C-SPAN anchor’s departure.

What this round of debate dodging indicates is that there ought to be hope for a renewed strength in the quality of debates for the 2024 cycle. For too long, presidential debates haven’t been asking relevant questions — foreign policy, for instance, got essentially no time in the 2020 cycle. What’s needed is an opening up of the process with more debates and a wider variety of moderators.

If the dodgers go down in November, the takeaway should be that instead of being scared of debates, they ought to have taken the stage and had the confidence to defend their beliefs. Voters deserve to hear it. But please, not at 7 p.m. on Friday night.