U.S. Sen. Angus King (I-ME) speaks with reporters following the weekly policy luncheons at the U.S. Capitol June 26, 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images)
The Democratic candidate in Maine’s upcoming U.S. Senate election is challenging independent Sen. Angus King and the race’s other contenders to a series of debates beginning this summer.
November’s election will pit King, an independent who caucuses with the Democratic Senate majority, against Democrat David Costello, Republican Demi Kouzounas and independent Jason Cherry.
On Thursday, Costello said King and the other candidates should join him in a series of five, 90-minute debates across the state. Costello — a former Maine, Maryland, and U.S. government worker — suggested debates in Presque Isle, Bangor, Lewiston, Portland, and Biddeford, with events beginning in July and ending in late October.
“Most Mainers, like most Americans, are concerned about the high level of political gridlock and dysfunction in Washington and the need for meaningful, effective change and would welcome the opportunity to hear what Maine’s U.S. Senate candidates intend to do about it,” Costello said, specifically citing issues like the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and domestic matters like health care, housing, inflation, immigration and reproductive health rights, among other matters.
King, Kouzounas and Cherry’s campaigns did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether they would agree to the debates. Kouzounas is the former chair of the Maine Republican Party and Cherry is a retired FBI agent.
Costello’s challenge comes as King is seeking a third term after easily winning election in 2012 and 2018. The independent incumbent officially launched his reelection campaign in May, stating that one reason he is running again is that he believes “we’re losing the middle in the Senate.”
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