The Virginia Bar Association has canceled the first debate in the campaign for Virginia’s U.S. Senate seat because it said it could not get “a timely commitment to participate” from Hung Cao, the Republican challenger to Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
The debate, scheduled on July 20 at The Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, is the traditional kickoff for statewide campaign debate season and the first of three debates that Kaine said he has accepted in his campaign for reelection to a third term.
![Kaine Cao](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/ef/aefcf1e2-3ae5-11ef-9c6c-7bcece7d18c7/66881551156ca.image.jpg?resize=150%2C82 150w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/ef/aefcf1e2-3ae5-11ef-9c6c-7bcece7d18c7/66881551156ca.image.jpg?resize=200%2C110 200w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/ef/aefcf1e2-3ae5-11ef-9c6c-7bcece7d18c7/66881551156ca.image.jpg?resize=225%2C124 225w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/ef/aefcf1e2-3ae5-11ef-9c6c-7bcece7d18c7/66881551156ca.image.jpg?resize=300%2C165 300w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/ef/aefcf1e2-3ae5-11ef-9c6c-7bcece7d18c7/66881551156ca.image.jpg?resize=400%2C220 400w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/ef/aefcf1e2-3ae5-11ef-9c6c-7bcece7d18c7/66881551156ca.image.jpg?resize=540%2C296 540w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/ef/aefcf1e2-3ae5-11ef-9c6c-7bcece7d18c7/66881551156ca.image.jpg?resize=640%2C351 640w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/ef/aefcf1e2-3ae5-11ef-9c6c-7bcece7d18c7/66881551156ca.image.jpg?resize=750%2C412 750w, https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/ef/aefcf1e2-3ae5-11ef-9c6c-7bcece7d18c7/66881551156ca.image.jpg?resize=920%2C505 990w)
Hung Cao is challenging Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
Cao is a retired U.S. Navy captain from Purcellville in Loudoun County. His campaign provided no explanation, but said it “is in negotiations with a statewide media company for a much more visible event.”
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Kaine spokesman Michael Beyer accused the Republican of “hiding from Virginians” and refusing to attend the debate to avoid explaining his positions on such issues as Medicare and Social Security, reproductive rights, access to health insurance and the cost of prescription drugs.
“Tim Kaine is glad to stand before Virginians and talk about what he’s doing to grow our economy, expand health care access while cutting prescription drug prices, and protect reproductive freedom,” Beyer said.
Kaine has used the planned debates to put Cao on the defensive after he won the Republican Senate primary in a five-way race on June 18. Two days after the primary, Kaine announced that he had accepted invitations to debates at the Homestead this month and two after Labor Day — one on Sept. 19 in Fairfax County and another on Oct. 2 at Norfolk State University.
Cao’s campaign said then that it had not yet received the debate invitations, but added that the Republican nominee “looks forward to participating in televised debates in the fall.”
Marilyn Shaw, communications director for the bar association, confirmed that the organization had not contacted Cao formally, but had communicated with state Republican Party Chairman Rich Anderson weeks before the primary. Anderson said he had alerted all five Republican candidates of the debate prior to the primary and advised them to “put that date on their calendar.”
Shaw said last week that the bar association had delivered a formal invitation to Cao’s campaign on June 21, three days after the primary election, but had not received a response.
“Evidently they haven’t responded,” said Anderson, who was copied on the emailed invitation. “I haven’t talked to them to see what their thinking is.”
The bar association debate has been a longstanding tradition in Virginia politics, but Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a political newcomer who had just won the Republican nomination for governor, declined to participate in 2021 in his campaign against former Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Youngkin said he disagreed with the debate format and the choice of moderator, PBS newscaster Judy Woodruff.
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U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., left, and Republican Corey Stewart get a signal from timekeeper Pia Trigiani during the Virginia Bar Association’s Senate debate at The Omni Homestead Resort on July 21, 2018. The July 20 debate between Kaine and challenger Hung Cao has been canceled.
The moderator for the July 20 Senate debate was to be Lonnie D. “Chip” Nunley III, a Richmond attorney who is chairman of the association’s board of governors.
Kaine, in his two previous Senate campaigns, participated in bar association debates against former Sen. George Allen, R-Virginia, in 2012 and former Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart in 2018.
Gubernatorial debate
The first debate between the governor candidates, Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Ken Cuccinelli, at the Homestead in Hot Springs.