Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, left, has agreed to face Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in a debate Oct. 14 in Savannah, roughly three weeks before Election Day.

ATLANTA — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker has agreed to debate incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock Oct. 14 in Savannah.

For weeks, Warnock has been criticizing Walker for not agreeing to a specific schedule of debates. Walker has responded by saying said he would be ready to debate his opponent but only under “fair and equitable” terms.

The one-hour Savannah debate will take place before a live audience of about 500.

“I’m not going to obey the demands of the elite press and the liberal establishment to stand in an empty room for a debate that is supposed to be about the people,” Walker said in a video statement released Tuesday night.

“I accepted a debate that’s about the voters. I’m leaving the media elite behind and taking my message right to the people.”

Warnock has accepted invitations to debate Walker in October at Mercer University in Macon and at the studios of Georgia Public Broadcasting and WSB-TV in Atlanta.

If only the Oct. 14 debate takes place, it would be in a Republican-friendly area of the state and away from metro Atlanta, which Warnock dominated on the way to his election victory in January of last year. However, Savannah also is Warnock’s hometown.

The Savannah debate will be televised by Fox 5 Atlanta, the Nexstar Media Group markets serving Georgia in Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, Spartanburg, S.C., and Dothan, Ala. It also will air on the Sinclair-owned stations in Macon and Albany. 

This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.