Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis will debate Republican Texas House Rep. Mark Shelton Oct. 11 in the TRTR Energy Room on TR Campus.
According to Reginald Gates, vice chancellor of communications and external affairs, the time has not been set yet. Faculty and staff want to make it as accessible to students as possible, which is also why it is being held on TR Campus.
Shelton is running for the District 10 state Senate seat. Shelton has challenged Davis to answer on her contracts with registered lobbyists, claiming that she has been unethical in her practices. Shelton is hoping to address issues regarding recent claims of Davis stealing Shelton’s campaign advertisement scripts. Davis has denied these claims.
Shelton has requested that Davis immediately make her details on business relationships with said lobbyists known to the public.
Davis is making an issue of Shelton’s votes on government cutbacks.
“She is focused on increasing government transparency so that taxpayer money is accounted for,” said Zachariah Evans, Davis’ communications director.
“[Mr. Shelton’s] vote on the budget alone cost Tarrant County public schools $260 million. On top of that, his vote for the budget also cut $24.4 million in funding from Tarrant County College and UNT Health Science Center.”
Davis has advocated a halt of school funding cuts in Texas.
Moderated by the Texas Prosperity Project, the two debaters will discuss questions posed by all TCC campuses.
Faculty from across the district are gathering questions from each campus to present at the debate.
— Kirsten Mahon
