For about an hour Monday morning, the two candidates for the 6th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives shared a stage in Buena Vista.
It wasn’t a debate — these were back-to-back speeches that were part of Buena Vista’s 55th annual Labor Day celebration — but the appearances by Republican incumbent Ben Cline and Democratic challenger Beth Macy did offer a preview of what we’d likely hear if and when the two really do debate.
Macy blistered Cline for “kissing the king’s ring” in a reference to President Donald Trump; Cline countered that she offered “the same tired rhetoric that Democrats have been spouting since the beginning of the Trump administration.”
The two also sparred over which party does the best job representing “working families” and the wisdom of continuing military action against Iran. Macy ticked off a list of budget cuts in the 6th District that she attributed to the Republicans’ “One Big Ugly Bill” — her description of what Republicans have called the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Cline said he’d continue “delivering results.”
When Cline said he was looking out for “working families,” Democrats in the audience held up signs that said: “Not true.” As his proof, Cline pointed to how working-class Buena Vista once regularly voted Democratic but now votes Republican. In the past, he said, “it would have voted Democrat because Democrats at that point advocated for working families. Let’s look at their results, today, this city made up of hard working men and women vote Republican each and every year because Republicans support working families.” Buena Vista was consistently a Democratic city through the 1990s but flipped to Republican in the 2000 presidential election. In 2024, it voted 71.0% for Donald Trump.
Whether voters get an actual debate between the two candidates is itself a matter of some debate. To recap briefly how we got here: Macy this summer challenged Cline to three debates — one in the Roanoke Valley, one in the central Shenandoah Valley, one in the northern Shenandoah Valley. Cline quickly accepted. If Macy thought that meant Cline was going to negotiate a debate schedule, she was mistaken — and naive. Instead, Cline unilaterally announced three events they’d both been invited to as the debates. Macy cried foul, said she couldn’t attend two of them because of other commitments and, well, here we are. On Monday, her campaign manager, Wynn Morris, said Macy would be able to attend the third event — an Oct. 5 meeting of the Harrisonburg Rotary — but the Macy campaign insists that’s not a real debate, but more of a “forum” with some speechmaking and brief questions and answers.
How you feel about all this may depend on how you feel about the two candidates. From the standpoint of sheer political gamesmanship, Cline has outfoxed Macy; she has said he “doesn’t get to make the rules” — except, as the incumbent, he sort of does. Challengers typically need debates more than the incumbent so Cline is in the position of setting the chess board the way he sees fit. Macy can accept his dates and formats or not because there’s no power to force an incumbent to debate. Over the weekend, in the district to the south, Republican incumbent Morgan Griffith simply told Democratic challenger Joy Powers he had no intention to debate because voters in the 9th District already know where he stands. Next door in the 5th, Republican incumbent John McGuire hasn’t replied to Democrat Tom Perriello’s offer to debate. As the 19th-century columnist Finley Peter Dunne famously observed, “Politics ain’t beanbag.”
Ultimately, voters aren’t likely to vote based on who debates or not. If they vote simply based on party identification, then there’s nothing more they need to know than that Cline is a Republican and Macy is a Democrat. If they do care about issues (and sometimes I’m doubtful), those under the pavilion in Glen Maury Park heard a smidge of issues mentioned.
Here’s my attempt to line up what each said and offer whatever kind of fact-checking and analysis I can. Macy spoke for twice (or more) as long as Cline did, so she had more quotes to work with. Cline went first in the speaking order, so that’s why he’s listed first:
Taxes
Cline: “Working families are who we focus on in Washington when we deliver on legislation that helps working families by leaving more money in their pocket …”
Macy: “He won’t do a debate because he can’t look you in the eye to defend taking food off the plate of children and giving billionaires a tax break. … Two hundred kids in Roanoke city just this year lost Head Start. Think about how that hurts working families, all so that the uber-wealthy can get two trillion in tax breaks.”
Assessment: This is essentially a debate over what you think about the tax provisions of H.R. 1 — and which ones you want to focus on. Cline is likely referring to how the bill raised the standard deduction. Macy is likely referring to how the bill made permanent the temporary income bracket rates in the 2017 tax bill, which had reduced the tax rates for most filers. This is a case where it’s possible for both arguments to be true at the same time: The bill did put more money in the pockets of working people; the bill also was made permanent those lower taxes and if you’re “uber-wealthy,” they translate into a lot of money. And, yes, the bill did cut federal spending for some programs and, by definition, those cuts do trickle down to the ground.
Trump
Cline: Did not mention Trump in his remarks.
Macy: “He won’t do a legitimate debate because he can’t defend Donald Trump’s disastrous policies that he has backed 100% of the time.”
Assessment: The 100% figure seems correct. Congressional Quarterly, in its 2025 tracker of presidential support, ranked Cline at backing the Trump administration 100% of the time. (The lowest Republican scores in Virginia went to Morgan Griffith and Jen Kiggans, both at 95%.) Heritage Action, a conservative group that has been supportive of Trump, scores Cline at voting 100% with its agenda in this congressional session, higher than the typical Republican score of 87%.
The question is really what you think of Trump.
Inflation
Cline: “We are rolling back the high inflation that came with Joe Biden. Inflation during the Biden administration, remember, was 9.5%. You know what? It’s coming down. It’s come down further.”
Macy: Did not mention inflation specifically but said Trump’s tariffs are driving up prices.
Assessment: Inflation did, indeed, spike under the Biden administration.
The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks inflation in consumer prices monthly, on a year-over-year basis. They spiked in June 2022, when prices were 9.1% higher than a year before. They’ve since fallen but do remain slightly higher than they were during Trump’s first term. Inflation began this year at 2.4%, jumped to 4.2% in May, and in July fell to 3.4% higher than a year before.
How much of that inflation was Biden’s fault is something economists will debate for a long time. Some of the inflation was likely due to the nation coming out of the pandemic, and demand exceeding supply for items. The Biden administration also increased spending, which also likely contributed to inflation. However, inflation was also a worldwide phenomenon. Just as it eventually brought down a Democratic president in the U.S., it also brought down the Conservative Party government in Great Britain.
Iran
Cline: “We are going to end this war in Iran but we are going to win this war in Iran. We’re going to make sure Iran does not possess nuclear weapons. We’re going to continue to advocate for a resolution to this war on our terms, not the terms of Iran.”
Macy: “Do we really want another endless war? It’s already killed 18 service members, injured more than 750. It is bankrupting the farmers of the 6th District. It’s killing them with $6-a-gallon diesel prices, doubled fertilizer costs and it’s costing all of us, you know, $30 more than it was a year ago to fill up at the gas tank. Trump promised no more endless war. Ben Cline kisses the king’s ring while our men and women are stuck on aircraft carriers with little food and water while the Iranian mullahs taunt us. You know, Republicans can’t even really explain this war. I can explain it in three words: It’s a distraction from the Epstein files. … They are trying to distract you from the fact that they are robbing you.”
Assessment: There’s a lot that can be said about the U.S. military action against Iran but most of it you’ve likely heard elsewhere, so let’s instead pose this question that I haven’t seen either party engage in: How does anyone propose to keep Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons other than by bombing them every few years or instigating a regime change to bring in a Western-friendly regime? Ultimately, the power of Congress to constrain a president who wants to bomb another country is limited. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the sole right to declare war but a Constitution written in the age of slow-moving sailing vessels has difficulty dealing with a modern world of missiles and drones that take only minutes to be delivered.
Healthcare cuts
Cline: Did not address.
Macy: “I think it’s wrong when politicians vote to cut $1 trillion from Medicaid. That’s 300,000 Virginians who are going to lose their Medicaid after the midterms. That is diabolical. … That One Ugly Bill that Ben Cline voted for caused the closing of the clinic in Buena Vista.” She also said she backed “Medicare For All.”
Assessment: Augusta Health said that bill played a role in the clinic’s closing but was not the only factor. Its full statement at the time: “Augusta Medical Group has announced the consolidation of three practice locations as part of its ongoing commitment to delivering consistent, high-quality care while adapting to the evolving needs of the community. After thorough consideration, Augusta Medical Group has decided to consolidate Weyers Cave Urgent Care, Buena Vista Primary Care, and Churchville Primary Care. Patients from these locations will be transitioned to nearby practices, ensuring improved access to regular care. The consolidation is also part of Augusta Health’s ongoing response to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the resulting realities for healthcare delivery. Augusta Health continues to evaluate services and locations to ensure long-term sustainability while providing the best care for patients, providers, team members, and the community.”
Data centers and artificial intelligence
Cline: Did not address in his remarks but after the event said there should be “guardrails” on artificial intelligence.
Macy: “Ben Cline has taken money from Google, from Dominion, from Meta, all of whom benefit from sucking up our water and polluting our gorgeous land and taking our jobs away from future kids. You know that left organization, Goldman Sachs, said recently we are losing 16,000 jobs a month because of AI.”
(Disclosure: All three of those have also been donors to Cardinal at one time or another, but donors have no say in news decisions. See our policy. You can also test this yourself by becoming a donor and having no say.)
Assessment: Goldman Sachs did, indeed, issue a report earlier this year that referenced 16,000 jobs a month going away due to AI but it’s not quite like how Macy depicted it. The report said “AI has reduced monthly payroll growth by roughly 16,000 jobs in the US in the past year” — meaning there were 16,000 jobs that weren’t created due to AI, not that 16,000 disappeared. At the time, Goldman Sachs said that while AI is eliminating jobs in some sectors, it’s creating some in others. “The loss of jobs from AI replacing workers is being partially offset by rising employment where AI augments human labor,” the report said. Overall, said the balance was probably about a 0.1% increase in the unemployment rate due to AI.
The exact role of AI on jobs remains hotly debated but not necessarily proven. Economists at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia recently said they couldn’t determine yet what impact AI was having on the job picture in Virginia. Their report also suggested that data center construction might be propping up the economy.
The Economist, in a story headlined “The jobs apocalypse is postponed. An AI jobs boom is here,” this week reported exactly the opposite of what Macy warned about: “The Economist estimates that AI has so far created around 1m new jobs in America. That easily exceeds the roughly 200,000 lay-offs attributed to AI since mid-2023, and appears more than enough to offset weaker hiring in many back-office roles.”
What seems to be happening is that some white-collar jobs are being eliminated by AI but some blue-collar jobs are being created, such as electricians and hearing/air conditioning workers to keep data centers running. Macy criticized the Google data center coming to Botetourt. However, in the same business park where Google will be is the Munters HVAC plant, where employment has tripled to more than 600 due to its data center customers.
Farm bill
Cline: “Guess who voted against the farm bill? Democrats. Democrats voted against a farm bill to help farmers across this country. They don’t want to admit it but every time we’ve put up legislation to help working families in the House this year Democrats have voted no.”
Macy: Didn’t address the farm bill directly but cited U.S. Department of Agriculture cuts to food programs. “People are sleeping in their cars outside the Dollar General in Woodstock because they want to be first in line at the food pantry in the morning because they know that food’s going to run out. That’s because of the USDA cuts and the SNAP cuts. People are going hungry like you would not believe. At Fincastle, Virginia, I arrived an hour before the food pantry opened at the church and cars were lined all the way down to 220. … We were three minutes from Ben Cline’s house.”
Assessment: The farm bill passed the House largely along party lines. It’s currently stalled in the Senate Agriculture Committee in which the Iowa Capital Dispatch says is a “conflict over when states will shoulder a share of federal nutrition assistance costs.”
Parting thoughts
If you want a “real” debate between the two candidates, you first have to define what a debate is. The most famous debates in American history are the Lincoln-Douglas debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in the Illinois Senate election of 1858. Those weren’t “real” debates by our standards. One candidate spoke for an hour, the next for 90 minutes, then the first candidate for a 30-minute rebuttal. All told, Cline and Macy together spoke for probably less than 20 minutes out of the hour they spent on stage. The rest of the time was taken up by other candidates and ceremony.
For more issues, you can see how the candidates responded to our Voter Guide questionnaire, which is now available. However, out of 11 House incumbents in Virginia, only one — Democrat Don Beyer in the 8th District in Northern Virginia — has responded.
Senate candidates at Buena Vista
The Buena Vista Labor Day festivities also included remarks by Virginia’s two Senate candidates: Democratic incumbent Mark Warner and Republican challenger Bert Mizusawa.
Warner:
He criticized President Donald Trump. “The president is not focused on affordability. He’s focused on vanity projects like the ballroom and, God forbid, an arch in front of the National Cemetery. Veterans ought to be respected.”
He also criticized the war in Iran. As vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, “I see all of the intelligence. This was a war of choice. The regime [that has emerged] is worse than the one that started and we’re going to have $4-a-gallon gas for as far as the eye can see.”
He called for restrictions on data centers and artificial intelligence. “If you think social media screwed things up, wait until you have a chatbot talking to your teenager.”
Mizusawa:
The Republican candidate used his time to talk about his family history, which dates to his grandfather immigrating from Japan to Hawaii in 1905 to work the sugar fields. “If not for birthright citizenship, I wouldn’t be here,” he said, which would seem to put him at odds with Trump’s views on the subject. Mizusawa said he was the first in his family to attend college and went to the U.S. Military Academy, where he graduated first in his class. “Only in America could someone with my background be given that opportunity,” he said.
“I know a lot of you like to talk about President Trump,” Mizusawa said. “It’s a six-year term,” he said of the Senate seat he’s taking. “It will transcend Trump’s presidency. Who knows what will happen in ’28?”
The retired major general emphasized his support for border security — “I’ve lost soldiers protecting borders” — but said there’d be time to talk about issues later.
Both Warner and Mizusawa have answered our Voter Guide questions.
I’ll have some additional insights from Buena Vista in this week’s edition of West of the Capital, our weekly political newsletter. You can sign up here:
