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Beginning Tuesday, we are a week out from the end of the 2024 general election. And also Tuesday, voters will finally get their first side-by-side comparison of the two major-party candidates for governor.

Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Democratic Huntington Mayor Steve Williams will face off at Fairmont State University Tuesday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. The event will be moderated by WV MetroNews Talkline Host Hoppy Kercheval and broadcast on MetroNews radio stations as well as livestreamed at wvmetronews.com.

It really is a shame that we’re just now getting a debate between Morrisey and Williams. It really should have happened before the start of early voting. Lord knows that Morrisey received plenty of coverage by me and others leading up to the May contested GOP primary. But Williams was unopposed in his Democratic primary.

Sure, I’ve interviewed Williams during the primary. I even had a profile of Williams in your newspapers over the weekend. And it’s not like no one knew who he was prior to these elections. But the problem going forward is putting Morrisey’s platform and Williams’ platform side by side to compare and contrast.

Debates are good opportunities to put the same questions to both candidates and see how they answer them. It gives voters interested in public policy something to guide them. And for those just unsure about both men, a debate gives those voters additional information to make a decision.

Williams has an uphill battle, one that he has acknowledged publicly. As I reported last week, Republican Party voter registration keeps increasing. In fact, GOP voter registration increased by 5,082 voters between September and the close of the voter registration deadline on Oct. 15. According to those October numbers, Democratic Party voter registration decreased by 467 voters during the same time.

Democratic voter registration is now at 29% of the more than 1.2 million registered voters in the state as of October, compared to 41% identifying as Republican. Another 25% have no registration at all. And while it’s never been quantified, a certain percentage of those still registered as Democrats tend to vote Republican.

I don’t bring up those numbers to make Democratic candidates depressed. But the only way a Democratic candidate – even a fiscal conservative Democratic candidate like Steve Williams – can sway voters is by being able to come out looking better than Morrisey in the debate stage. People can still be swayed.

That might be where I have respect for Williams and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Glenn Elliott. They both know the lay of the political land in West Virginia and will keep fighting for every persuadable voter until the polls close at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5. And to Morrisey’s credit, he’s having the debate and he’s also out on the campaign trail. He’s not phoning it in.

I am a fan of elections, and I believe in the Eliot Ness line from the movie The Untouchables: never stop fighting until the fight is done. That’s probably why I find it distasteful that not only has Republican Gov. Jim Justice dismissed the idea of debating Elliott in the U.S. Senate race but has left the state twice now to campaign in battleground states with his dog on behalf of Republican former President Donald Trump.

Justice is so confident of a win that he has already deemed the election all but over. And certainly history would seem to show Justice capable of winning elections by wide margins. But I still think he ought to show a little bit of respect for the process and for his opponent. Plus, Justice is still fundraising as if the election isn’t over.

But if I do have any critical feedback for both the Williams and Elliott campaigns, it would be to talk to more Republicans. They both say they have, but both times I have followed them around on the campaign trail they appear to be addressing fellow Democrats or like-minded people on policy. But there is no winning on Election Day without Republican votes.

It’s easy for anyone to lock themselves into their own echo chambers. But the general election is about trying to reach out broadly to all voters. It even means moderating your political views to some extent. Former Republican governors Arch Moore and Cecil Underwood didn’t win their races in 1956 and 1968 without Democratic support. They had to craft a platform and agenda that the then-Democratic voting majority could support.

I still believe it takes a healthy balance of conservative and liberal ideas to operate a government. It’s up to the candidates to figure out what that balance is in order to woo voters. On Nov. 5, we’ll see if Williams and Elliott figured out the balance.

If you’re listening to the Morrisey/Williams debate Tuesday, stay tuned afterward for a post-debate panel with myself, WV MetroNews Statewide Correspondent Brad McElhinny, and West Virginia Watch reporter Amelia Knisely. The panel will be moderated by WAJR’s Dave Wilson.