Will Democratic Candidates For Governor Hold A Debate Before The Runoff?

Andrew White’s campaign has agreed to a debate, while Lupe Valdez’s campaign is more reluctant.

By Rhonda FanningApril 16, 2018 7:16 am, , ,

For the two people in the primary runoff to be the Democratic candidate for Texas governor – former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez and Houston businessman Andrew White – it’s unclear whether they’ll get a chance to debate before voters go to the polls again on May 22.

Ben Philpott, Senior Editor for KUT Austin, says there’s actually a debate about a debate.

Shortly after the primary election, Philpott says, Lupe Valdez indicated that a primary debate was unlikely.

“But as we got into last week, she started to say yes, that a debate probably would happen,” Philpott says.

When KUT reached out to the candidates, along with other media partners, to set up a debate, Philpott says the White campaign agreed while the Valdez campaign said “we’ll get back to you.”

“I think that after you had the Dallas Morning News editorial before the primary endorsing Andrew White and saying some very critical things about maybe how much Lupe Valdez knew about how the Legislature worked,” Philpott says, “you could argue that maybe there was a concern about being asked questions about those specific things in a live debate.”

Written by Jen Rice.