OPINION: Incumbent political candidates shouldn't hide from the voters

One of the things I hate about campaign season is when a candidate for an office doesn't want to involve himself or herself in a public appearance like a debate or forum with the opponent.

These are a great way for the electorate to have the chance to see the candidates side-by-side, hear their views on the issues at hand in the election and be able to compare and contrast between the two.

Nationally, former President Donald Trump is apparently refusing to do another debate with Vice-President Kamala Harris (according to the Harris campaign, at least), but at least he has debated both Harris and current President Joe Biden before he vacated his campaign for re-election.

Locally, four years ago in Medina where I live, I got frustrated when I tried to put together a forum for three people running for mayor. One person told me she'd do it. Another told me he'd do it if the incumbent would. After I got those two, I texted all three and said, "Mayor Coleman, I've got commitments from both of your opponents, would you be willing to have a forum with them?"

Vance Coleman - the incumbent who won re-election then and is not running this year - never responded. The one who said he would be there if Coleman were, then called me and said he never said he'd be there.

A week later, I texted all three again calling the two men cowards for not doing the forum when I thought they had nothing to lose against the weaker candidate that was willing to do it.

Four years later in 2024, we've got two aldermen running for the open seat of Mayor and one is willing to do a forum, the other said he would not. And that's frustrating.

If you're willing to raise your hand and say, "I'm willing to put my name out there and ask people to vote for me to lead them" then why would you not be willing to appear before them, answer questions from a neutral third party to let the voters know where you stand on the issues?

We're getting it also at the state and federal levels right now.

Just look at some of the local events we've had related to the U.S. Senator election.

Both major party candidates have been in Jackson in recent days.

Democratic nominee Gloria Johnson was at Jackson State Community College having a town hall with voters for 90 minutes and then stuck around for another hour after that for a meet-and-greet time with them.

Meanwhile, the incumbent and Republican nominee Marsha Blackburn was in Jackson a few days later, but it was for a private event sponsored by the Republican Party. There were advertisements for the event on Facebook, but the ad never said where it would be other than in Jackson.

Conservative commentator Clay Travis was going to be Sen. Blackburn's special guest at the event.

Multiple news organizations throughout the state have put out requests for a debate or at least a forum, and there's never been a response from the Blackburn campaign - or if there were any, they were essentially saying no.

Sen. Blackburn hasn't had an in-person town hall with voters since she was elected to the Senate, and that happened early in the Senate campaign. According to her website, she has multiple telephone town halls with voters in different areas of the state, but if she's having a town hall meeting with voters in Jackson and none of the news outlets in Jackson are a part of it to at least listen in, how much can we trust those conversations to be nothing more than a cheerleading session for the Senator?

And she's not the only one. Are any of the Republican incumbents in the House appearing in forums or debates with their opponents?

From my understanding, David Kustoff is more visible in District 8 than most of his counterparts are in their districts, and to his credit, the few times I've asked for an interview, more times than not he's said yes - including Jan. 7, 2021, to tell his firsthand account of what things were like in the Capitol the day before.

But it would be nice for the voters to be able to see how the candidates differ on the key issues the respective offices affect.

Gov. Bill Lee did the same thing two years ago, and the closest we came to a combined appearance was The Tennessean hosting separate interviews with him and Democratic nominee Jason Martin.

Did anyone think Lee would lose that election? To be honest from my moderate perspective, are there any expectations whatsoever in Johnson upsetting Blackburn or any of the Republicans getting upset and losing their seat?

Then why would they not make that appearance, answer those questions and stand out from the competition?

And why not answer questions to show the voters that you are willing to do that if both the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates could deal with real-time fact-checking from ABC during their debates (which shouldn't have happened by the way unless they were prepared to fact check Harris and Walz too)? 

Blackburn’s policies and platform are her policies and platform, hopefully no matter who's asking about them.

I realize Jackson isn’t the most populated area of the state and isn’t one of the hubs with the most eyes watching. I also realize The Jackson Post with all of its 23 months of history of journalism covering Jackson and Madison County isn’t the most eye-catching news outlet to offer a forum or debate. But if both Blackburn and Johnson are willing to come to the Hub City on the same night in the final two weeks of October, let me know as soon as possible, and I’ll be glad to put an event together that would be agreeable to both campaign camps while also giving voters a chance to hear from both candidates. 

All of the voters of Tennessee deserve to hear from Sen. Blackburn during this election season. Not just her campaign donors.

Brandon Shields is the managing editor of The Jackson Post. Contact him at brandon@jacksonpost.news. Follow him on X @JSEditorBrandon and on Instagram @editorBrandon.