ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo.—With Tuesday’s primary elections in the rearview mirror, it didn’t take long for candidates in Missouri’s U.S. Senate race to call each other out over a dustup about debates.

Sen. Josh Hawley, the Republican incumbent, and Lucas Kunce, the Democratic challenger, both say they want multiple debates. But they’re in a social media back and forth over which debate will be first and how it will be managed.

Hawley offered a Lincoln-Douglas-styled debate at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia next Thursday after the Governor’s Ham Breakfast, hosted by the Missouri Farm Bureau with questions asked by the public afterward. Kunce said he’d accepted an invite for a Thursday debate in Sedalia broadcast by NBC affiliates in the state.

Kunce balked at Hawley’s invitation, because the Farm Bureau is already endorsing Hawley’s campaign. Hawley did not meet a Thursday evening deadline KSDK-TV had set for a reply, but wouldn’t characterize it as a refusal.

An added wrinkle came Friday, when Kunce shared on social media that the Missouri State Fair would not “accommodate any request for political debates on the fairgrounds”.  

In an earlier social media post Friday, Hawley’s invitation noted that the Farm Bureau was “getting the debate site ready right next to the State Fairgrounds.”

A spokesperson for the State Fair confirmed the decision but would not elaborate beyond saying it would not have an impact on the typical political activity that goes on at the fair each year, including next Thursday’s Ham Breakfast which is an annual draw for candidates for office. In  2022, it was the only time the two major candidates for the Senate–then Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Trudy Busch Valentine, would cross paths in the general election.

Both campaigns have hit the ground in St. Louis since Tuesday, with Kunce holding a rally in Maplewood on Wednesday, while Hawley did the same in Chesterfield Thursday.

Kunce is leaning into the movement to restore abortion access that is expected to be on the November ballot. Abortion has been all but banned in the state since the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.

“This issue is important to people everywhere in this state, not just in St. Louis, not just in Boone County, not just in Kansas City, this touches lives everywhere in this state. It’s why it’s gonna win and it’s why we’re gonna win,” Kunce told an audience at Schlafly Bottleworks on Wednesday.

He also criticized Hawley’s wife’s role in legal challenges that have come before the U.S. Supreme Court, including most recently involving mifepristone. The court ruled in June that Erin Hawley’s client didn’t have the legal right to sue over the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion medication, or subsequent moves to make it more available.

“My opponent has an odd fixation on my wife, I will say and listen, if he wants to debate her I bet she’d debate him too,” Sen. Hawley said.

Hawley did not mention abortion in his remarks at Stemme Farms in Chesterfield, instead focusing on the impact of illegal immigration, pushing back on transgender issues, and what he said was Kunce’s opposition to fossil fuels.

Hawley supports abortion exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. Current state law only allows for cases involving medical emergencies. He told reporters afterward he supports the ability to put the abortion question on the ballot.

“It's always been decided by nine Justices wearing black robes. Now, after the Dobbs decision it's to be decided by the voters in the states, including right here in Missouri and that's as it should be. I will be voting for the pro-life position, but I think this is an issue for the voters to decide. I think they deserve to have that choice and that power,” Hawley said.