Republican Rick Jackson and Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms will take the debate stage in October for a gubernatorial town hall as margins tighten between the two candidates vying to lead Georgia.
Atlanta News First reported Monday that Jackson and Bottoms have agreed to participate in a live debate on Oct. 6 in Atlanta. Erik Schrader, the vice president of Atlanta News First, said the town hall-style debate is intended to address issues at the center of voters’ concerns.
“By bringing undecided voters face-to-face with the candidates in a town hall format, we are ensuring that the questions that matter most to families in metro Atlanta are answered directly on our stage,” Schrader said. “We are proud to leverage the world-class production capabilities of Assembly Studios to deliver this vital civic broadcast.”
The debate will be hosted by Atlanta News First anchor Rick Folbaum and will last one hour with 30-minute pre- and post-show programs.
While both candidates have agreed to the debate in October, Bottoms is pushing for an additional five debates. Her campaign said she has accepted invitations to six total debates, including the ANF town hall, in Macon, Savannah, and Atlanta.
Jackson campaign spokesman Garrison Douglas told Atlanta News First that Bottoms’s sudden push for multiple debates reflects her campaign’s weakness.
“Only the flailing campaign of a failed politician would spend more than six weeks ducking a debate, then suddenly demand six of them after Georgians begin to learn the truth about her disastrous record as mayor of Atlanta,” Douglas said. “The fact is Keisha Lance Bottoms has become desperate and can’t talk her way out of what she did to Atlanta.”
Georgia’s gubernatorial race is a big test for the GOP in the purple state, as the party looks to defend term-limited Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R-GA) seat.
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Jackson and Bottoms are in a tight race as recent polling suggests the Democrat holds a slight edge over the healthcare executive. A Quantus Insights poll from early August found Bottoms leading Jackson by roughly 4 percentage points in a survey of over 800 likely voters.
Both candidates are focusing their campaigns on affordability, and public safety has emerged as an area of contention between Jackson and Bottoms. Jackson has hit Bottoms hard on public safety and has touted endorsements from Democratic sheriffs.