JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 For the second time this election cycle, candidates in major Florida races would not agree to take the debate stage, and some political observers believe a trend is forming. <\/p>\n
Voters like Enice Butler told Action News Jax they believe it\u2019s important to see candidates take the stage and participate in debates.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kind of shows how they are knowledgeable about what they\u2019re talking about, and if they\u2019re really just gonna apply what they say or if they\u2019re just saying basic things to get into the office,\u201d said Butler.<\/p>\n
But lately, candidates seem to be less willing to participate in such events.<\/p>\n
Republican US Senator Ashley Moody recently declined Action News Jax\u2019s debate offer, and over the summer Republican Gubernatorial candidates Byron Donalds and Jay Collins both declined our offer to host a Primary debate.<\/p>\n
UCF Political Science Professor Dr. Aubry Jewett argued there are some similarities between the US Senate race and that Gubernatorial Primary.<\/p>\n
Donalds held a solid lead in the polls in that race, and Moody seems to have a decent lead<\/a> over her Democratic opponent Angie Nixon.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they feel like they have a lead and they don\u2019t want to do something to risk it, then they play it safe, and they don\u2019t debate. Because the thing about debates is that the unexpected can happen,\u201d said Jewett.<\/p>\n And Jewett suggested a trend appears to be forming.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Republicans continue to feel like they have a solid lead in most races, then they may just say, yeah, there\u2019s no reason for us to debate,\u201d said Jewett. \u201dBecause, again, well, it\u2019s not gonna help us very much cause they\u2019re gonna say we\u2019ve already got a good lead and it may hurt us, so why risk it?\u201d<\/p>\n But he argued it\u2019s a trend that only stands to hurt voters.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s still really important for a lot of voters to have a debate. It\u2019s not just like a big spectacle of a Roman circus. I mean, it is a little, but it\u2019s more of voters can gain valuable information about the candidates from these debates,\u201d said Jewett. \u201dAnd so, there is a reason still to have them.\u201d<\/p>\n Action News Jax is also working to see whether the Senatorial candidates would be willing to participate in a town hall-style event.<\/p>\n Nixon has agreed, and Moody\u2019s campaign has said it\u2019s considering the possibility.<\/p>\n In the Gubernatorial race, Donalds, the Republican nominee, has called for there to be not just one, but three debates.<\/p>\n Democratic nominee David Jolly agreed to a debate with a Miami news station on Sunday, but as of now, no event is officially set in stone.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 For the second time this election cycle, candidates in major Florida races would not agree…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,643,5228,35434,159278,53042,95050,58473,58471,44843,36239,18687,28,14135,1130,116,118,117,971,970,158552,34860,159279,634,123,54908,35436,13853,11103,4219,40610,7219,628,63244],"class_list":["post-400317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-action_news_jack","tag-action_news_jacks","tag-angie_nixon","tag-annise_butler","tag-ashley_moody","tag-aubrey_jewitt","tag-byron_donalds","tag-david_jolly","tag-democratic","tag-donald","tag-dr","tag-florida","tag-gop","tag-jackson","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jake","tag-jake_stoan","tag-jake_stouffan","tag-jay_collins","tag-jewitt","tag-local","tag-miami","tag-moody","tag-nixon","tag-professor","tag-republican","tag-republicans","tag-senator","tag-ucf","tag-us","tag-us_senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}