U.S. Senate Hopefuls, Cruz, O'Rourke Agree To 3 Texas Debates

AUSTIN, TEXAS — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and the man seeking to unseat him, U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, have agreed to have three debates before Election Day.

The agreement announced on Friday calls for debates to take place Sept. 21 in Dallas, Sept. 30 in Houston and Oct. 16 in San Antonio. Each of the debates will be an hour in length and in different formats. In Dallas, domestic policy will be the focus in a moderated setting. Houston will be the site for another debate centered on domestic policy but in a town hall style setting. The final debate in San Antonio will be a moderated affair, half dealing with domestic policy and the rest on foreign policy.

The debate in Dallas will take place at Southern Methodist University, the Houston debate will be at the University of Houston and the San Antonio debate will occur at a studio, according to information provided by both camps.

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It's been a bumpy road to even get to the debate phase of the political contest. Disagreements over format and number of debates began in May when O'Rourke, a Democratic congressman from El Paso, proposed six debates — including two in Spanish. Hailing from the predominantly Hispanic region of El Paso, O'Rourke is fluent in Spanish while Cruz, the son of Cuban immigrants, is not.

The Cruz-O'Rourke race has emerged as one of the nation's most-watched contests leading up to the November mid-term elections. Despite the state's reliably red status, O'Rourke has made impressive gains against Cruz — galvanizing the electorate on each side — and has raised exponentially more campaign cash than the Republican incumbent.

The growing threat Cruz could be defeated has prompted Donald Trump to schedule a rally for his onetime-nemesis when both ran for president in an effort to build support for the Republican senator.

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