North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis will be appearing on stage alone Tuesday evening in what would be the fourth debate and final televised debate of the cycle.
The incumbent, Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) declined to participate in the debate, giving Tillis the stage for the entire debate in Raleigh and hosted by Time Warner Cable News, The Raleigh News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer.
Monday Tillis encouraged Hagan to join.
“In many ways, Sen. Hagan’s absence tomorrow would be symbolic of her ineffective tenure in Washington, where she has been nowhere to be seen when it comes to representing the interests of North Carolina and standing up to President Obama’s failed policies,” Tillis said in a statement.
According to to the Fayetteville Observer, the Hagan campaign has argued that it has been a standard practice in North Carolina U.S. Senate races to only have three debates.
“We negotiated back in the summer, and we set the schedule back in the summer,” Hagan told the Observer. “So we planned our schedule out between now and the end of the election and we are maintaining the negotiation that we put forward back in July.”
The paper further reported that Hagan said she has other ways to get her message out beyond and hour on television.
“You know, I’m talking to people today,” Hagan said. ” I’m talking to you. I’m talking to people tomorrow afternoon, tonight. We have a full schedule where I am talking to thousands of people.”
In recent weeks Tillis has been gaining on Hagan in the polls. The Real Clear Politics Average has Hagan up 1.2 percentage points.
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