NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and his Republican challenger Hung Cao discussed the U.S. dockworkers strike, the economy, the crisis in the Middle East, the topic of abortion and much more during their first and only live televised debate Wednesday night in Norfolk.
The debate was hosted at Norfolk State University, a historically Black university, with a focus on racial disparities and inequities in education and health care; the criminal justice system; and economic mobility.
This was only the second U.S. senatorial debate the university has hosted in its nearly 90-year history. The first debate on campus, presented by WAVY TV 10 in 2020, was between U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D), who was seeking his third term in the Senate at the time, and his Republican challenger Daniel Gade, a professor at American University and a retired Army lieutenant colonel. Warner defeated Gade in the November election.
