Questions are being raised about why State Sen. Rachel Hunt, Mecklenburg, the Democratic candidate in North Carolina’s lieutenant governor’s race decided to pull out of the only debate scheduled between her and Republican candidate Hal Weatherman.

The controversy began Monday when Weatherman announced in a video on X that Hunt had withdrawn from the debate, co-sponsored by Spectrum News 1 and NC Institute of Political Leadership (IOPL) and scheduled for Sept. 17 at UNC-Charlotte. He also said that her campaign had said that she was booked for the rest of the campaign and could not reschedule.

But Hunt’s campaign said that’s false because she never agreed to a debate with Weatherman.

“It’s disappointing to see Hal Weatherman lie to voters about a debate that Rachel never agreed to,” Zach Godwin, Campaign Manager for Hunt’s campaign, said in an emailed statement to Carolina Journal. “Rachel is going to continue to travel the state and focus on meeting voters where they are instead of giving Hal Weatherman a platform to spew his anti-abortion extremism and continue to repeat his election conspiracy theories for all North Carolinians to see.”

Her campaign’s statement, however, has been repeatedly refuted.

In a Sept. 2 opinion piece for CJ, John Hood, a John Locke Foundation board member and IOPL board chairman, wrote about upcoming debates, including the one between Hunt and Weatherman.

A spokesperson for Weatherman’s campaign told CJ in a phone call Tuesday that it was confirmed and had been on their calendar for several months. He said Brad Young, Executive Director for IOPL, told him that Hunt had confirmed that she would debate Weatherman.

“It’s been on our calendar since right after the primary,” Weatherman’s spokesperson said. “They reached out and said hey, this is the date that we want to have a debate between the two candidates. In fact, this even predates the second primary, and they said whoever wins the republican nomination, whether it was us (Weatherman) or Jim O’Neill, this is the date that has been agreed to and then we confirmed that Rachel would be in attendance, so this is definitely a real thing that she backed out of.”

See more: Interview with NC Lt, Gov. candidate Hal Weatherman.

Young also confirmed to CJ Tuesday that both parties had agreed to the debate earlier this year.

“In April, IOPL reached a preliminary agreement with Senator Hunt’s campaign for a debate between the Lieutenant Governor candidates in September,” he said in an emailed statement to CJ. “The campaign notified IOPL and Spectrum News 1 last week that they would not be participating. As a result, the event scheduled for September 17th at UNC Charlotte was canceled.”

Weatherman emailed a statement to CJ stating that Hunt’s withdrawal from the debate is a perfect example of the contrast between their two campaigns.

“Mine is one of traveling to all 100 counties, meeting with thousands of people, shaking their hands, taking their questions unfiltered and unscripted versus her campaign, which is highly scripted, protected, and sheltered with limited travel and interaction with the people of this state other than small liberal groups with whom she has an affinity.”