South Dakota Public Broadcasting has confirmed that it will be hosting a second Gubernatorial debate in Sioux Falls on October 24th. The debate is scheduled to run from 8:00pm to 9:00pm live on SDPB with no commercial breaks.
Taking part in the debate will be Libertarian Tracey Quint and Democrat Jamie Smith. It appears unlikely that the current Governor Kristi Noem will take part in the debate. If you remember earlier in the year Noem had said she would not take part in a SDPB debate because it is a left leaning organization. Read more on that story here.
With a total of 56 minutes for the debate and no Kristi Noem on the stage, this should give voters the opportunity to hear more from Quint and Smith without the partisan rhetoric that dominated the first debate held last month by Dakota News Now.
The big question is will Kristi Noem change her mind about a second debate? Or will she be out of State at another political fundraiser? Either way the voters of South Dakota win by being able to hear more from the candidates that do participate. Lets be honest they will get to hear more about the issues this time without Noem deflecting to Joe Biden every 5 minutes. I wasn’t quite sure if she was running for Governor or President in the last debate.
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