Candidates running for the US Senate have spent recent weeks trading heated exchanges and stinging personal attacks on the debate stage. The contests lead up to the 3 November midterm elections, which will help decide which party controls Congress.
Several themes have emerged, particularly in the Senate races that are most closely fought. Chief among them is the relationship between Republican candidates and President Donald Trump, a question that has come up in elections since 2016.
Republicans weigh how far to distance themselves from Trump
Conservatives who have openly opposed the president in the past have generally not done well with voters, according to the report. Trump’s approval ratings have been low in recent months, and polling suggests that voters are mainly worried about the cost of living and high fuel prices.
Many Republicans have stayed closely aligned with the president. An analysis cited in the report found, however, that two-thirds of candidates in competitive House and Senate races have broken with Trump in some way this election cycle.
In Maine, Republican Susan Collins, who is seeking a sixth term and has repeatedly broken with the president, is again creating clear space between herself and Trump. “I voted with President Biden 91% of the time,” Collins said during a debate last week. She added: “The fact is, this year alone, this Congress alone, I voted against President Trump 137 times.”
Collins is facing a tighter race than she had expected against Democrat Troy Jackson, a former president of the Maine Senate. A mid-September poll by a New York newspaper and Siena University suggested Collins could be ahead by 3%, while other surveys indicated Jackson was leading.
Some Republicans are taking a different route, separating themselves from specific Trump administration policies while still expressing loyalty to the president himself. In Iowa, a state long considered a Republican stronghold, Congresswoman Ashley Hinson is facing a harder contest than anticipated against Democrat Josh Turek, and some polls show him with a narrow lead.
Hinson has not distanced herself from Trump to the extent Collins has, but she has parted ways with him on some policy points. At a 13 October debate with Turek, she was asked about a Trump administration deal to import 300,000 tonnes of Russian material to the US, followed by several other shipments. She did not hold back, saying that the country needed lower gas and diesel prices but that she did not think a deal with Russia was the way to get them.
Personal attacks define Michigan and Georgia Senate races
The candidates have not shied away from pointed personal criticism of their opponents. The contest for the open Michigan Senate seat, between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers, has featured plenty of it.
Rogers, a former congressman backed by Trump, asked during a debate whether anyone in his opponent’s family might be on a “watchlist”. El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim member of the US Senate, responded forcefully. He called Rogers “a sock puppet for the Trump administration” and said he was “weak, cowardly [and] won’t stand up until his poll numbers drop”.
Further south, in Georgia, incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff and Republican Representative Mike Collins, who is backed by Trump, also exchanged personal attacks. The dispute began with Ossoff accusing Collins of taking money away from Georgians and giving it to data centre developers. It quickly escalated into insults, with Ossoff calling Collins a “bigot” who had “hired half the Third Reich”.
Social media posts by Collins’ son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II, have also become a point of contention. In one post, Scheer blamed “Israel and Zionist Jews” for policies he said were meant to “undermine the white, Christian nature of America”. Collins responded by accusing Ossoff of “spewing” “craziness”, adding: “I’ve condemned racism, antisemitism, hate; I don’t care where the source is.”
Maine clash and Texas debate standoff
Tensions also spilled into the Maine debate between Jackson and Collins on Thursday, when a protester interrupted the event. Collins suggested that the person was linked to her opponent. Jackson replied to Collins: “Oh shut up, I don’t even know that kid.”
Many races are not seeing face-to-face contests at all. Of the 35 Senate seats up for grabs in November, an ABC News analysis found that no debates were scheduled among the main candidates in 21 of them.
The lack of debates is most striking in Texas, where Democratic state representative James Talarico is running against Republican Ken Paxton, a former state attorney general. Polls in the traditionally Republican state suggest Talarico could be within reach of a surprise win. If he succeeded, he could help Democrats gain control of the Senate by flipping one of the four seats they need.
Talarico has accepted four debate invitations from different news networks, while Paxton has accepted none. In July, Paxton’s campaign spokesperson told media outlets that he would debate Talarico, but the campaign and Paxton have said little on the subject since. Trump, who backed Paxton in the Republican primaries, has even urged the candidates to debate.
Peter Trumbore, a political science professor at Oakland University, warned last month that skipping debates carries a cost. He said that candidates who do not show up lose the chance to make their own case and leave their opponent free to frame them as negatively as possible.
