Kaine Campaign Statement On Hung Cao Skipping The Northern Virginia Chamber Debate And AARP Forum
Richmond, VA — Last week, the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce/NBC4 and AARP had to cancel their respective Senate debate and forum because the Cao campaign informed them that he refused to participate. The Northern Virginia Chamber/NBC4 debate was originally scheduled for September 19, and the AARP forum was scheduled for September 13.
Michael Beyer, Communications Director for Kaine for Virginia, released the following statement in response:
“As is tradition, Senator Kaine accepted four invitations for debates and candidate forums in different regions of the Commonwealth. He is disappointed that his opponent has refused to participate in the first three. But he isn’t surprised—his opponent skipped 12 of 13 candidate forums during the GOP primary.
“Senator Kaine looks forward to appearing with his opponent in Norfolk on October 2 to talk about his record of standing up for Virginians and describing his ongoing work to create high-quality jobs, reduce health care costs, protect reproductive freedom, and support our military families and veterans.”
Last month, the Virginia Bar Association canceled their debate on July 20 because they were “unable to obtain a timely commitment to participate from the Cao campaign.”
Cao skipped 12 out of 13 candidate forums during the GOP primary, only attending a single forum in his home county. The list of GOP forums he skipped is as follows: