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State Sen. Rob Sampson has done something incumbents almost never do. He has publicly challenged his Democrat opponent to a debate — and he has offered to let Jack Perry pick the subject list.
In a letter sent to Perry and shared with the Centinal, the Republican from the 16th Senate District said months of mailers, advertisements, videos, and social media posts attacking his record should not go unanswered on a stage. Perry has accused Sampson of voting against working families and has misrepresented his positions, Sampson wrote, on taxes, electric rates, prescription drugs, public safety, consumer protection, and legislation taking effect this week.
“I dispute those accusations, and I believe many of them seriously distort both my record and the legislation involved,” Sampson wrote. “So I have a simple proposal: Debate me.”
The terms are unusually favorable to the challenger. Sampson told Perry to bring the mailers, the ads, the posts, and the claims about his votes. Perry would choose the accusations. Sampson said he would answer with the record, the bills, and his reasons for each vote.
In the meantime, Sampson's website features a series fact checks on Perry's claims.
“It is unusual for a strong incumbent to challenge his opponent to a debate,” Sampson wrote. “I am not doing so because I am worried about the outcome of this election. I am doing it because the people of the 16th Senate District deserve an opportunity to hear both of us defend what we have been telling them.”
That is the part Democrats would rather skip. Paid advertising lets a campaign assert that a vote “hurts working families” without ever having to explain the bill, the amendment, or the alternative on the table. A debate does not. Sampson’s letter makes that contrast explicit: no edited ads, no graphics, no spin from either side — “just two candidates, the issues, our records, and the voters we are asking to represent.”
He closed with the question the mailers never have to answer.
“If you believe what you have been telling the voters about me, then come say it in a public debate and defend it. I will answer every charge. I will defend every vote. And I will give you the same opportunity to defend your own statements and positions… The invitation is public. I am ready. Are you?”
Voters in the 16th now have a clear test. If Perry’s case against Sampson is as strong as the advertising says, he should be eager to make it with the man he is attacking standing across from him. If he is not, the district can draw its own conclusion about what those mailers were for.
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