Texas Public Radio has repeatedly asked Brandon Herrera for an interview about his past online comments. At a campaign event in a public shopping center, his campaign manager told the reporter to leave.
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John Rutherford has been in office for ten years and hasn't held a single in-person town hall meeting.
Asked to debate her Democratic challenger in a race the challenger says a national pollster calls a dead heat, Stephanie Bice's campaign said no and pointed to her opponent's campaign debt. In 2020, when Bice needed the seat, she did at least three general-election debates. She also won't hold in-person town halls.
Five weeks before Election Day, Greg Abbott hasn't accepted a debate with Gina Hinojosa, Ken Paxton has committed to none after promising 'of course' he'd debate James Talarico, and Tom Cotton is sitting out Arkansas TV's debates in favor of one hosted by Salem Media.
Updated October 15: David Rouzer skipped a UNC Wilmington forum and Russell Fry backed out of an NAACP forum six hours before it started; Tom Cotton's only agreed debate fell through. October 12: Keith Self, asked on national TV whether he would debate, called the district 'my seat.' October 10: Cliff Bentz declined four debate invitations because accepting would make his opponent look 'credible,' Jim Pillen called debates 'theater,' and Julie Fedorchak pulled out of North Dakota's public TV debate. Earlier: Jeff Hurd declined televised debate invitations and agreed to one 30-minute session before a friendly audience instead. John McGuire says he'll debate when his opponent apologizes for raising a BlackRock sale the disclosure records in his wife's retirement account. They join fourteen Republicans we have already documented ducking the one event they can't script.
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For 52 straight weeks, a 90-year-old woman and her neighbors have stood on a Little Rock street corner in rain, heat, sleet and snow, asking their representative, MAGA Congressman French Hill, to hold a single in-person town hall.
The chair of the House Rules Committee says there was 'a lot of support' for throwing the press out of the Speaker's Lobby, where reporters have traditionally caught members between votes. When her own constituents organized a town hall and invited her, she didn't come.
In four states, in three days, four Republicans on this site said no to a debate or forum their opponent was ready to do. A Michigan Senate debate went on with an empty podium, South Dakota's public broadcaster aired its Senate debate without the senator, and a second Wisconsin governor's debate was canceled.
Rep. Harriet Hageman, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, let Wyoming PBS's debate deadline pass without responding. The station doesn't hold one-candidate debates, so it canceled the Senate debate. She skipped the 2022 general-election debate and both PBS debates in 2024 too.
