Plymouth, Michigan, voters weighing the races for governor and U.S. Senate will have two televised debates to watch this week as the candidates meet face to face with less than a month left before Election Day on Nov. 3.
The gubernatorial debate comes first, on Tuesday, Oct. 6, when Republican Congressman John James and Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson meet in a Grand Rapids TV studio. It is their first debate of the general election campaign.
On Thursday, Oct. 8, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers will debate in the same studio in the race for the open U.S. Senate seat. That race has been among the tightest on Michigan’s ballot, and analysts see the forum as a chance to sway undecided voters.
That Thursday evening also brings a debate between secretary of state candidates Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II and Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini at the University of Michigan’s Ford School in Ann Arbor.
James has said he will focus on what he calls failures of Democratic leadership in Lansing, and Benson has said she will lay out her plans for the state’s future.
Early voting by mail is already underway. The secretary of state’s office counted 125,635 Michigan residents who had voted as of Monday, roughly 1.7% of active registered voters, after absentee ballots began going out Sept. 24.
