Major national policy questions took center stage in the only Connecticut senatorial debate of the election season.
12:15 am, Oct 31, 2024
Staff Reporter
Ethan Wolin, Contributing Photographer
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy and Republican challenger Matthew Corey disagreed about economic policy, border security measures and former President Donald Trump in their only debate of the election season on Wednesday night.
The two candidates met at the WTNH television studio in downtown New Haven for the 45-minute face-off, less than a week before Election Day and after 10 days of early voting had already passed in Connecticut. Murphy defeated Corey by over 20 percentage points in 2018 and is now running for a third Senate term.
Murphy acknowledged widespread concerns about the cost of living while threading a needle to praise the state of the economy under a Democratic administration.
“I think people are hurting in this country. And the economy is much better. If you want a job, you can get it. Factory construction is up. Crime is going down. But people feel powerless in this country,” Murphy said, adding that large corporations and billionaires wield too much power. Murphy proposed cracking down on “price gougers,” echoing Vice President Kamala Harris’ talking points.
Corey, a businessman and Navy veteran, called for reduced corporate and income taxes and pitched himself as a business-friendly alternative to the two-term incumbent.
“Are you better off today than you were four, or in the case of Senator Murphy, six years ago?” Corey said. When asked how he would diverge from Trump, Corey — who attended Trump’s Sunday rally at Madison Square Garden — said, “Look, there’s not many ways. I mean, I have a better personality than he has.”
On the subject of immigration, Murphy discussed his role negotiating a bipartisan border bill that failed in Congress after Trump expressed opposition. Corey said the government should escalate deportations, starting with undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes.
Murphy warned of Republican policy on abortion, saying that Republicans would pass a national abortion ban, while he supports national protections to restore Roe v. Wade’s right to abortion.
Corey said Murphy was trying to use abortion as a “fear tactic” in the campaign and that states should decide their own approaches to abortion. He then changed topics to voice his opposition to transgender students’ participation in women’s sports, adding that he would support withholding federal funding from schools that allow such participation.
“When are men in this country going to start standing up for women?” Corey said.
Murphy said that school districts should decide individually how to handle transgender athletes and that Republicans’ broadsides against them contributed to transgender children’s disproportionate mental health struggles.
The senator expressed support for federal legislation to limit teenagers’ use of social media, calling the platforms’ algorithms a “poison.” Corey, for his part, said parents should oversee their children’s tech use without government intervention.
Murphy also attacked Trump for his groundless claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, and for his labeling certain Democrats as “the enemy from within.” Speaking to reporters after the debate, Murphy said Democrats should emphasize that Trump threatens American democracy in their final days of campaigning.
“If Donald Trump wins and uses the power of the presidency to punish his political enemies, then I’m not sure that any of the other issues matter, because we won’t be able to fight them out in the public sphere,” Murphy said.
For all their disagreements, Corey and Murphy had nearly identical answers to one question in the so-called lightning round at the end of the debate. One of the two moderators asked Corey first whether he had used cannabis since recreational marijuana became legal in Connecticut in 2021.
“Not a big fan, no,” Corey said. Murphy, in turn, responded, “Similar, not a big fan.”
Murphy is 51 years old; Corey is 60.
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