INDIANAPOLIS – Candidates for Indiana's open U.S. Senate seat debated birthright citizenship, foreign policy and climate change Tuesday night during one of their last appeals to voters before the Nov. 6 midterm election.
Incumbent Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly, Republican former state legislator Mike Braun and Libertarian candidate Lucy Brenton faced off at the Newfields arts center in Indianapolis during the final debate.
The debate may be one of the deciding factors in a race that is still uncertain less than a week before Hoosier votes are counted.
Donnelly talked about the legislation he has sponsored during his two Senate terms to help prove his records on bipartisanship and tangible change, but Braun said his Democratic opponent didn't know what is really going on in the state because of his time spent in Washington, D.C.
“I’m fed up with business as usual in D.C.,” Braun said.
Nearly all questions during the debate were submitted by Indiana residents. Some of the questions were asked by people in attendance at the event, while others were read by moderator Amna Nawaz of PBS NewsHour.
Nawaz told Braun multiple times he needed to answer the question given to him after he failed to provide specific, policy-based responses.
During a question on climate change, Donnelly and Brenton put their support behind ethanol and hemp, respectively, as alternate sources of fuel.
At first, Braun talked about his time as a tree farmer and said it was important to take care of the earth, but didn’t offer a specific solution.
After Nawaz pointed this out to Braun, he eventually said the country needs to focus on finding the fuel that is the cleanest and least expensive.
Braun also deflected during the discussion about U.S. foreign policy regarding Saudi Arabia, which admitted involvement in the the death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Trump has been criticized for continuing to work on an arms deal with the foreign power during its attempts to cover up and deny the incident.
Braun said he supported the president’s efforts, but tried to pivot to the Iran Nuclear Deal and Donnelly’s support for it, despite the topic of the question.
“I think this is an issue about leadership and if you’re happy with the old dynamic,” Braun said.
Donnelly said he wanted to temporarily cut off the arms deal because he believed the Saudi government helped kill Khashoggi, who was a graduate of Indiana State University,
“He’s a Sycamore,” Donnelly said. “He lived in Virginia, and they murdered him.”
The discussion also touched on birthright citizenship, which became an issue the morning of the debate after President Donald Trump told Axios on HBO he wanted to end the practice.
Most legal scholars believe the 14th Amendment of the Constitution gives citizenship to any child born in the U.S., but Trump claimed in the interview he had the option to reverse the practice through executive order.
Donnelly said the issue should be handled by Congress, but it is important to make sure any legislation was constitutional before changing anything.
Birthright citizenship is part of larger problem of poor immigration policy, Braun said. By bringing the issue to light, Trump is helping change the way politics and immigration are typically handled.
“Finally, we’ve got a leader in the White House that is doing something about it,” Braun said.
The race is currently leaning toward a Donnelly win, according to poll numbers collected and analyzed by FiveThirtyEight as of Tuesday night. If he does secure a win, it may be a narrow one, given that Braun has polled in the lead for six of the last 10 polls gathered by FiveThirtyEight, including the four most recent.
The site lists Brenton’s chance of winning as less than one percent.
Brenton told reporters after the debate that the Democratic and Republican candidates need to appeal to voters instead of feeling entitled to votes because they are supported by a major political party.
“I’m the first loser,” she said. “The second loser will know they lost because they missed the mark on what Hoosiers want.”
At a post debate conference, Donnelly spoke about that morning’s fatal collision in Rochester, Indiana, where three children died after a pickup truck driver blew a school bus stop sign while the children tried to cross the street.
Donnelly said the town was special to him because he used to represent Rochester when he served in the House of Representatives.
“Our entire state loves you, has your back and will be with you every step of the way,” Donnelly said.
Afterward, he called Braun an “errand boy” for the Republican senate leadership
Braun did not attend the optional post-debate appearance.
