Congressional candidates in Tampa Bay’s 15th District debate tonight

Both candidates in Tampa Bay’s open 15th Congressional seat will give their pitch to voters about why they deserve to be elected during a televised debate on Thursday.

Republican Laurel Lee, the former Florida secretary of state, and Democrat Alan Cohn, a former investigative journalist, will discuss the top issues facing Floridians.

The debate is 30 minutes with no commercial breaks, and will air on Bay News 9 at 7 p.m. The debate will be pre-recorded Thursday afternoon, then later streamed on tampabay.com, on the Tampa Bay Times Facebook page and on the Spectrum News app.

Tampa Bay Times Political Editor Emily L. Mahoney will host the conversation along with Spectrum Bay News 9 political anchor Holly Gregory.

Florida’s 15th Congressional District covers parts of Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk counties. It leans in favor of Republicans, but is the most purple of any of Tampa Bay’s congressional seats.

The Times and Bay News 9 also extended a separate debate invitation to the candidates for the 13th Congressional District in Pinellas County, but Republican Anna Paulina Luna told moderators that she would not debate unless Democratic candidate Eric Lynn denounced vandalism of her campaign signs, which she attributed to his supporters.

Lynn’s campaign sent a statement to Bay News 9 saying they denounced vandalism of all kinds, but said Luna has “not only refused to condemn vandalism, but has even encouraged it and applauded it,” referring to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

After Lynn’s statement, Bay News 9 proposed a new date, but Luna’s campaign did not respond to confirm, according to the station. Her campaign did not return a request for comment Wednesday.