On Monday, WOOD-TV 8 in Grand Rapids announced it would host the first debate between Democratic candidate U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Holly and former Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers of Brighton on Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. Political reporter Rick Albin will moderate the debate and several stations in Michigan will also broadcast the debate.

According to WXYZ, Slotkin and Rogers will then participate in a second debate, scheduled for October 14 on WXYZ Channel 7 in Detroit. No further details on that date have been announced.

There is a vacant U.S. Senate seat in Michigan this year, as current Democratic U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow announced early last year that she would not run for a fifth six-year term. Slotkin has represented a central Michigan district since 2018 and is a former intelligence official and former deputy secretary of defense. Rogers, who left Congress in 2015 after seven two-year terms, is a former FBI agent who rose to become chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

According to a recent Free Press poll, Slotkin was four percentage points ahead of Rogers, 46% to 42%, with 12% undecided.

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A task force created by a coalition of Michigan groups, including the Detroit Economic Club, Oakland University and others, had called on Slotkin and Rogers to hold three debates before the election begins in September, with a third debate to be held in Traverse City.

Dave Dulio, director of the Center for Civic Engagement at Oakland University, who was part of the group, said Tuesday he was pleased that two debates were taking place but expressed concerns that campaign teams and media organizations were negotiating the debates rather than a neutral third party. “The task force believes that debates negotiated only by television networks and candidates are not in the best interest of the public because they tend to focus on the candidates’ communications goals rather than what voters want and need to know,” he said.

Rogers’ campaign said it had also agreed to another Senate debate, but it was never completed.

Contact Todd Spangler: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.