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Politically Speaking: Breaking down Hawley and McCaskill’s first one-on-one debate

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill compliments Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley's family. Oct. 18, 2018.
Carolina Hidalgo | St. Louis Public Radio
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill compliments Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley's family.

St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum and Jo Mannies examine Thursday night’s televised debate between U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill and Attorney General Josh Hawley.

The debate comes as most polls show a tight race between McCaskill and Hawley. And few observers believe that Democrats have any chance of taking over the Senate if McCaskill can’t win a third term.

Among other things, the candidates debated health care, immigration policy, “right to work” laws, global warming and Second Amendment rights. Hawley contended that McCaskill is too liberal for a state which went for President Donald Trump by 19 points. McCaskill emphasized her independence, someone who will work with “anyone, anytime” to address the state’s needs.

The one-hour showdown aired on the state’s NBC, PBS and NPR affiliates. St. Louis Public Radio, 5 On Your Side and The Nine Network teamed up to organize the debate, which featured PBS Newshour’s Judy Woodruff as moderator.

Mannies and Rosenbaum also discussed the release of videotapes from Project Veritas — and how McCaskill’s campaign is pursuing legal action.

Follow Jason on Twitter: @jrosenbaum

Follow Jo on Twitter: @jmannies

Music: “Re-Arranged” by Limp Bizkit

Jason is the politics correspondent for St. Louis Public Radio.
Jo Mannies has been covering Missouri politics and government for almost four decades, much of that time as a reporter and columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was the first woman to cover St. Louis City Hall, was the newspaper’s second woman sportswriter in its history, and spent four years in the Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau. She joined the St. Louis Beacon in 2009. She has won several local, regional and national awards, and has covered every president since Jimmy Carter. She scared fellow first-graders in the late 1950s when she showed them how close Alaska was to Russia and met Richard M. Nixon when she was in high school. She graduated from Valparaiso University in northwest Indiana, and was the daughter of a high school basketball coach. She is married and has two grown children, both lawyers. She’s a history and movie buff, cultivates a massive flower garden, and bakes banana bread regularly for her colleagues.

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