NORFOLK, Va. (WRIC) — On Wednesday, Oct. 2, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine and his Republican challenger Hung Cao went head-to-head at the Virginia Senate Debate held at Norfolk State University’s campus.

The candidates answered questions on a wide range of topics, but several moments stood out.

Here are three memorable moments from the debate.

8News’ Deanna Allbrittin silencing the audience

The Virginia Senate Debate was co-moderated by 8News’ Deanna Allbrittin. According to Allbrittin, the audience was asked to have “no reaction” to the candidates in order for the moderators to get through as many topics as possible throughout the debate.

However, when Cao was asked about his claims that diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have been hampering military recruiting, his answer was followed by a large applause from the audience.

This prompted Allbrittin to ask the audience to quiet down for the first time during the debate. Allbrittin would go on to silence the audience several other times following the candidates’ answers.

“Please audience, please — please quiet down,” Allbrittin said.

‘Two truths in the world’

According to Federal Student Aid, more than one million Virginians owe a collective $43 billion in federal student debt. During the debate, Cao was asked how he would help Virginians ease this burden. In his answer, Cao went on to direct the question at Kaine, asking why he had not fixed this issue while in office.

Cao claimed that Kaine has had a 99% failure rate when it comes to passing bills, with only 3 bills allegedly passed out of 220 bills Kaine has proposed, according to Cao.

When Kaine said this was incorrect, Cao made the following statement which garnered a reaction from the audience:

“There are two truths in the world: never walk into a Target store wearing a red shirt, and never go against an Asian when it comes to math,” Cao said in response to Kaine.

An otherwise civil debate gets heated on certain topics

Aside from the aforementioned moment involving student debt in Virginia, both candidates were mostly cordial with one another. However, the conversation became more heated on some topics, like abortion.

While Kaine suggested he would want to reinstate federal policies protecting abortion rights, such as Roe v. Wade, Cao made the claim that Kaine supported “unlimited abortion” up to and including birth, citing Kaine’s vote against the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.

“What he wants to do is take it out of the hands of voters,” Cao said. “I want to keep it back in the hands of voters because I don’t want a senator from California or a congressman from Idaho making decisions for Virginians.”

Kaine rejected the claim, saying he only voted against the bill in question because infanticide was already illegal according to federal law.

“This was an effort to smear women by calling them ‘Nazis’ or ‘bomb makers’. I voted against smears,” Kaine said. “Women should be protected to make their own reproductive decisions before the point of fetal viability and state legislators should be able to impose reasonable restrictions after. That’s Virginia law right now, I support it, and I think it’s the right law for the United States.”

For more Virginia Senate Debate 2024 coverage, click here.