Two North Carolina Senate candidates to debate as early voting opens

Libertarian Shannon Bray and Green Party candidate Michael Dublin will take questions in a live North Carolina U.S. Senate debate on Oct. 15, the night early voting opens statewide. Democrat Roy Cooper and Republican Michael Whatley were invited but did not respond.

Why it matters: - North Carolina voters will hear directly from two of the four U.S. Senate candidates on the first night of early voting. - The debate gives unaffiliated voters, who make up the largest bloc in the state, a live forum to question candidates outside the major-party campaign cycle. - The event also highlights the absence of the Democratic and Republican nominees from a ballot-wide debate.

What happened: - Libertarian Shannon Bray and Green Party candidate Michael Dublin accepted invitations to a virtual U.S. Senate debate set for Thursday, Oct. 15, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. ET. - Democrat Roy Cooper and Republican Michael Whatley were also invited, but neither campaign responded. - The debate will stream live on the Libertarian Party of North Carolina's Facebook, X and YouTube channels. - Ryan Rabah, co-founder of the We The People Party of North Carolina, will moderate.

The details: - The candidates will answer questions on the economy, healthcare, the war with Iran, tariffs, climate change, immigration, election integrity and voting rights. - Viewers can submit questions during the livestream. - People who cannot watch live can leave questions in the comments on the debate posts. - If time allows, the moderator may choose viewer questions. - Early voting in North Carolina runs from Oct. 15 through 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31. - Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. - The event details list the stream locations as facebook.com/LPofNC, x.com/LPNC and youtube.com/@lpnc.

Between the lines: - Rob Yates, communications director for the Libertarian Party of North Carolina, framed the debate as a chance for voters to hear from candidates willing to appear live and take questions. - Yates said more North Carolinians are registered unaffiliated than as Republicans or Democrats. - As of Oct. 3, the North Carolina State Board of Elections said 3,160,539 of 7,868,625 registered voters, or 40.2%, were unaffiliated. - Registered Republicans and Democrats each accounted for 29.6% of voters, and unaffiliated voters outnumbered each major party by more than 830,000. - Counting Libertarian and Green Party members, more than 3.2 million North Carolinians, nearly 41% of the electorate, were registered outside the two major parties. - Bray, a Navy veteran and cybersecurity professional, has centered his campaign on digital privacy and government accountability. - Dublin, a public school educator and community activist, is running on what his campaign calls “People, Planet, and Progress.” - Bray said voters should not keep “reapplying the same two patches” when a system keeps failing. - Dublin said voters deserve a real debate on the war, the economy and who government works for, not “two well-funded campaigns talking past each other in 30-second ads.”

What's next: - Bray and Dublin will face voters live on Oct. 15, with audience questions built into the program. - The invitation to Cooper and Whatley remains open, according to the Libertarian Party of North Carolina. - North Carolina voters will continue early voting through Oct. 31 before Election Day on Nov. 3.

The bottom line: - The debate offers North Carolina voters a ballot-wide Senate forum at a key moment in the race, even as the two major-party campaigns skip the stage.