WATCH: Indiana US Senate candidates town hall
(NewsNation) — Senate candidates on the ballot in Indiana are gearing up for a town hall forum in one of their last chances to appeal to voters before election day on Nov. 8.
Sen. Todd Young (R) and Mayor Tom McDermott (D) are sitting down with journalists from FOX59 and CBS4 to discuss some of the key issues in this year’s race for Senate on Monday, Oct. 24 at 7pm/6C and the event will be livestreamed in this article.
Ahead of the forum, you can submit question for the candidates here.
These candidates, along with Libertarian candidate James Sceniak, have met in a debate already. The nearly hour-long debate covered topics important to Indiana voters, like inflation, immigration at the southern border, abortion rights. same-sex marriage, marijuana legalization, climate change, election integrity and other subjects.
McDermott tried to spark his underdog challenge to Indiana Republican U.S. Sen. Todd Young on Sunday by attacking his positions on issues spanning abortion, federal spending and marijuana legalization.
Young responded with criticism of President Joe Biden and the Democratic-controlled Congress for sparking higher inflation and gasoline prices as the candidates faced each other during their only scheduled televised debate ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
McDermott, who is the mayor of Hammond, and other Democrats have campaigned heavily on protection of abortion rights in the wake of Indiana’s Republican-dominated legislature voting over the summer to make it the first state to enact an abortion ban after the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade in June.
McDermott has called for a federal law reinstating abortion rights and criticized Young for voting to confirm three conservative Supreme Court justices nominated by former President Donald Trump who helped form the court’s majority in the abortion ruling.
“He gerrymandered the Supreme Court so that Roe v. Wade was overturned,” McDermott said.
Young said he believed state legislatures should decide what abortion policies should be and that what he called a “conversation” in all 50 states should continue.
“I do accept exceptions and I’ll accept whatever the people of Indiana decide,” Young said.
The Indiana ban, which state courts have blocked following a lawsuit filed by abortion clinic operators included exceptions allowing abortions in cases of rape and incest, before 10 weeks post-fertilization; to protect the life and physical health of the mother; and if a fetus is diagnosed with a lethal anomaly.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.