ASHEVILLE – There will be no face-to-face debate between the major-party candidates in this year's race for the congressional district that takes in most of Western North Carolina.

Representatives of two organizations that tried to put on debates told the Citizen Times that Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows of Sapphire in Transylvania County has declined invitations from them.

Meadows spokesman Ben Williamson said Friday that, "At this time, we have no plans to do a debate. Very little of our schedule between now and the election will be campaign related at all. We are focused on doing our jobs and representing Western North Carolinians in Congress."

The Democratic candidate in the 11th District, Phillip Price of Dysartsville in McDowell County, said there have been at least five proposals for debates and Meadows turned down each one. The Price campaign sent Meadows a letter in early October asking for a debate.

"I think he's scared to show his face to the general public," Price said. "It seems that all of his appearances have been (before) some sort of controlled audience at least for the past year."

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Meadows participated in at least one debate among the candidates seeking the Republican nomination when he first ran for U.S. House in 2012 and in debates with the Democratic nominee in 2012, 2014 and 2016. He is considered the heavy favorite in the strongly Republican 11th District.

Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University who organized debates for congressional candidates during previous elections, said he was told Meadows would not debate there this election.

The Council of Independent Business Owners in Asheville put on a debate for the two candidates in the 10th District, which includes most of Asheville, on Tuesday and has done the same in other races. A CIBO official said Meadows' staff declined an invitation to debate Price before the group.

WLOS-TV/Channel 13 tweeted in mid-October that it had contacted Meadows about a debate and was turned down.

Price said other organizations have informally suggested inviting him and Meadows for joint appearances if Meadows would attend but Meadows has apparently declined.

Should candidates debate?

It is not unusual for incumbents to decline debates if they think they are well ahead of their challengers, partly for fear that something could happen in a debate that would change the dynamics of the race. Price alluded to that calculation in an interview.

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"I think (Meadows) feels like he has nothing to gain and only something to lose by debating me at this point," he said. "I think he is extremely overconfident in this campaign and this election and it might sneak up to bite him in the butt."

But Price said people running for office should do more than just make a political judgment on whether debating would help or hurt their chances.

"The voters deserve it," he said. "Politicians are working for the people and they deserve to have them make their positions known publicly and contrast them with their opponent's."

Meadows did not hold a town hall meeting this August where constituents could ask him questions. He held one or more in 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2013.

He told The Mountaineer in Waynesville in July that town halls in election years tend to take on political overtones.

Meadows did answer constituents' questions during an 18-minute Facebook Live video session Sept. 5.

Meadows has attended a number of community events this fall. The front page of his campaign website on Friday had an item about the beginning of early voting from 2016 and another announcing an endorsement by the N.C. Trooper Association from 2014.

The third candidate in the 11th District race is Libertarian Clifton Ingram Jr., a contractor who lives in Sylva. The district covers the area from the Lenoir area to the westernmost point in the state west of Murphy but excludes most of Asheville, the southeastern quadrant of Buncombe County and all of Polk and Rutherford counties.