Democratic nominee for Congress Joy Powers has challenged Congressman Morgan Griffith to participate in three public debates across Virginia’s Ninth Congressional District before voters cast their ballots this November.
In a letter sent to Griffith, Powers proposed holding one debate in far Southwest Virginia, one in the New River Valley and one on the eastern end of the district. Powers said the two campaigns should jointly agree on hosts, venues, moderators, and format, with questions coming directly from voters across the Ninth District.
“The people of Southwest Virginia deserve them,” Powers wrote.
Powers issued the challenge as tens of thousands of Ninth District residents face the potential loss of health coverage under legislation Griffith supported in Congress. Nearly 37,000 people in the district are projected to lose coverage, more than in any other congressional district in Virginia, with most of those losses expected to come from Medicaid.
“The people who will live with the consequences deserve to hear you defend that vote in front of them,” Powers wrote to Griffith.
Powers said the debates should give voters an opportunity to question both candidates directly about health care, data centers, jobs, agriculture, energy costs, education, Social Security and Medicare, and the future of Southwest Virginia’s communities.
“You have represented this district in Congress for 16 years. I am asking its people to send me there instead,” Powers wrote. “They deserve the opportunity to hear, directly from both of us, what you have done with that responsibility and what I intend to do differently.”
Powers is asking Griffith to accept the three debates by Sept. 5.
Joy Powers for Congress
