October 11, 2022
Game on
Two campaign races of keen significance for Coastal Georgians crest in the next 10 days, as Sen. Raphael Warnock, Savannah’s native son, squares off against Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a one-hour debate on Friday at 7 p.m. at the JW Marriott at Savannah’s Plant Riverside District. It will be anchored by WSAV-TV’s Tina Tyus-Shaw and WAGA-TV’s Buck Lanford.
Three days later, a 4;15 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 18, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter meets Democratic challenger Wade Herring in a debate at the Atlanta Press Club to be streamed live and recorded so you can watch later. Posing questions in that debate will be Will Peebles, a reporter for the Savannah Morning News and Margaret Coker, editor in chief of The Current.
The Atlanta debate will be followed a day later by another in Savannah at the studios of WTOC-TV at 7 p.m., which will be broadcast live.
We preview the Walker-Warnock and Carter-Herring debates below.
There are obvious reasons why these debates are important for Coastal Georgians.
For one thing, with the arrival of a Hyundai auto plant and battery factory in Bryan County and Nissan’s selection of the Port of Brunswick as a new point of entry into the U.S., the region’s undergoing an economic boom. Which candidate has the best ideas for balancing the competing needs and aspirations of the region’s roughly 800,000 people?
There’s this, too: In an era of political polarization unprecedented since the Civil War, which candidate seeks to bridge differences where possible rather than exacerbate them for mere partisan political advantage?
But there’s a less glaring reason the debates are important for Coastal Georgia: In next month’s election, 13 out of the 17 races for the state House and Senate seats that make up our region will feature candidates running unopposed.
Thus, in a political landscape that is notable for a lack of competition, these debates have the potential to show an actual contest of views and visions of Coastal Georgia and its future. That’s good news for voters.
‘Debate Night in America’
First there was “Hockey Night in Canada.” Then there was “Football Night in America.” Get ready, Savannah, for “Debate Night in America.”
This Friday, Sen. Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, hold a much anticipated, one-hour debate in front of a live, by-invitation-only audience at Savannah’s Plant Riverside District.
The hosts of the debate, the Irving, Texas-based Nexstar Media Group and its local affiliate, WSAV-TV, say at least 10 million viewers across Georgia will have access to the broadcast, which will air on 5 Nexstar television stations serving the state and elsewhere.
The stakes are high for the debate as it’s likely to be the only face-to-face encounter between the two candidates in that could determine control of the U.S. Senate.
The debate will culminate months of cat-and-mouse between the two candidates and their operatives and speculation by the news media and political analysts. Will they debate? Won’t they debate? Should they debate? But it will also cap a quieter, but no less intense pursuit, by for-profit media companies and non-profit news and public interest organizations to host the encounter. Leading the pursuit were two heavyweight media groups with Savannah affiliates, The Current’s Craig Nelson reports.
Warnock sticks to the high road
With Herschel Walker still reeling from a rash of embarrassing allegations about his private life, Raphael Warnock goes into Friday’s night’s much-anticipated debate occupying a swath of high ground that any candidate would envy three weeks from an election.
But don’t expect him to pile on, The Current’s Craig Nelson writes.
Reporters found that out at Warnock’s rally last week in his hometown of Savannah.
Hoping to elicit from the 53-year-old Baptist preacher a fire-and-brimstone condemnation of his opponent, they pummeled the Baptist preacher after his 31-minute speech with questions about allegations, denied by Walker, that he had urged an ex-girlfriend to get an abortion after impregnating her and then reimbursed her for the procedure more than a decade ago.
Warnock wouldn’t be drawn in discuss the allegations or the anger voiced by Walker’s son, let alone whether his opponent was telling the truth. The reason was simple: In the speech he’d just finished, he’d drawn all the distinctions between himself and his opponent he’d needed to without wading into the unseemly details.
Budget chair hopeful v. ‘Chillest Dude in America’
Rep. Buddy Carter enters his two debates with his Democratic challenger Wade Herring a confident candidate.
In his latest weekly newsletter, Coastal Georgia’s four-term Republican congressman described a recent interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in which he laid out his plans to run for chairman of the powerful House Budget Committee when, as he hopes, Republicans take over the U.S. House of Representatives in next month’s midterm elections.
Clearly, it’s a self-assured candidate that talks so openly about his post-reelection plans. It’s also a savvy one, The Current’s Craig Nelson writes.
Still, in Herring, a 63-year-old Savannah attorney, Carter faces his most formidable and well-funded general election opponent since first running for Congress in 2014. Herring’s campaign has been smart and clever, too. Herring drew national attention recently when a campaign TikTok video dubbing him the “chillest dude in America” caught fire. TikTok, a social media platform, is consumed by two-thirds of American teens.
ICYMI
Speaking of debates . . . Georgia’s gubernatorial candidates — Incumbent Republican Brian Kemp, Democrat Stacey Abrams, and Libertarian Shane Hazel have been invited to participate in a candidate forum a 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, at St. Matthews Episcopal Church, 1401 Martin Luther King Blvd. in Savannah. Sponsors and supporters of the forum include Omega Psi Phi Mu Phi Chapter, the College Chapter of the Black Men America Savannah State University Chapter, the Savannah Jaycees, and the NAACP’s Savannah branch.
Saturation: In the first two weeks of September, Georgia saw the second-highest number of political ads in a Senate race. According to the Wesleyan Media Project, Democrats aired about 7,000 to Republicans’ 4,500, Axios reports.
Disputed book: Bryan County teacher says she was fired for objecting to same-sex book read to kids, WJCL reports.
Urban camping: The Brunswick City Commission voted last week to approve an ordinance cracking down on camping in public spaces.
Target Practice: At a Trump rally in Michigan on Oct. 1, the 14th Congressional district’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, said that “Democrats want Republicans dead,” adding that “Joe Biden has declared every freedom-loving American an enemy of the state.”
Slow growth: Growth in the Savannah metro economy remains positive but continued to slow through the first half of the year, reports the Coastal Empire Economic Monitor, a project of Georgia Southern University.
Buddy Carter, Wade Herring brandish ambition, street cred for seat in Congress
Republican Buddy Carter touts his post-election ambitions for a powerful Capitol Hill post, as Democratic challenger Wade Herring basks in “chillest dude in America” aura.
Justices question procedure, merit of Camden’s spaceport case
State Supreme Court hears oral arguments on spaceport referendum. Decision expected within six months.
Election 2022: Bryan County
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