Sen. Chuck Schumer agrees to televised debate with GOP opponent ahead of 2022 election

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will debate his Republican opponent, 39-year-old Joe Pinion, just over a week before the November midterm election.

Although Schumer, D-N.Y., has never formally acknowledged his opponent in the press, the Democrat powerhouse has agreed to face off against Pinion in a televised debate on Spectrum News moderated by “Inside City Hall” host Errol Louis and “Capital Tonight” host Susan Arbetter, the cable network tweeted.

Pinion’s campaign said he looks forward to pressing Schumer on his “leadership failure,” which he claims contributed to an “uptick in crime” and led to a rise in the number of New Yorkers moving out of the state. 

A 2022 study released by national moving company United Van Lines ranked New York as third in the country for highest rates of outbound migration, with the number of residents leave the state almost double the number moving in. 

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“We have a Rochester, New York, that is now more dangerous than Chicago, Illinois,” Pinion told Fox News Digital. “And we have a New York City that has become a wonderland of criminality because we have elevated the needs of the criminal over our responsibility to the common man.”

The first Black candidate to be nominated by a major party for the U.S. Senate seat, Pinion says that Schumer’s policies have “particularly jeopardized minority communities” like the Bronx neighborhood where he grew up. “The transcendent failure on education for all students of all colors and all creeds has not delivered children the tools they need to become the best version of themselves.”

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Pinion is hopeful that the debate stage will help improve his name recognition, which he believes is the primary factor holding him back from winning the race. “If everyone who was planning on voting in 2022 woke up tomorrow and magically knew my name — knew who I was — I think that Chuck Schumer would lose in a landslide because there is no way to defend his record,” Pinion said.

Schumer and Pinion will face off in a general election November 8.

At the time of the July 2022 FEC quarterly report, Schumer’s campaign had $37,913,276 and Pinion’s had a total of $25,149.

Schumer’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.