Lancaster County Heads Toward Another Election Without Public Candidate Debates After Republicans Decline League Forums

The League of Women Voters planned five candidate forums in Lancaster County. Four fell apart after Republican candidates declined or did not respond. Now the fifth—and final—forum has been canceled after Republican state Rep. Tom Jones withdrew.**

Lancaster County voters are once again heading toward Election Day without the public candidate debates traditionally organized by the League of Women Voters.

The League of Women Voters of Lancaster County planned five candidate forums ahead of the November election. Four were canceled after Republican candidates declined invitations or did not respond. The fifth—and last remaining forum—was canceled this week after Republican state Rep. Tom Jones withdrew from his scheduled appearance opposite Democratic state Sen. James Malone.

Jones and Malone, who are competing for Pennsylvania's 36th Senate District, had been scheduled to appear Thursday, Oct. 8, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Centerville Middle School.

The League said Jones informed the organization that he could no longer participate because of a "personal issue." LancasterOnline reported that Jones cited a family matter.

Jones had been the only Republican among the candidates invited to the League's five forums who had agreed to participate.

His withdrawal left Malone as the only candidate scheduled to appear Thursday. Under League rules designed to maintain the organization's nonpartisan status, a candidate forum cannot proceed when only one political party is represented.

The League therefore canceled the event.

"We are deeply disappointed that we are not able to provide the voters of the PA 36th Senate District with the opportunity to hear directly from the candidates running to represent them," the organization said.

The League said it is considering alternative ways to provide voters with information about the candidates.

But the cancellation means none of the five public candidate forums the League sought to organize in Lancaster County will take place as originally planned.

The four previously canceled forums involved Republican U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker in the 11th Congressional District and Republican state House candidates Dave Nissley, Brett Miller and Steve Mentzer.

The League said those forums could not proceed after the Republican candidates either declined to participate or did not respond to invitations.

The League's rules effectively give either major-party candidate the ability to prevent a traditional forum from taking place simply by declining to participate. The League cannot replace the missing candidate with an empty chair or proceed by questioning the candidate who accepts.

That policy is intended to protect the League's longstanding nonpartisan status. In Lancaster County this year, however, its practical result is that voters will not have the opportunity the organization intended to provide: watching opposing candidates appear together publicly and answer the same questions before Election Day.

The loss of the final forum is particularly significant because the 36th Senate District contest is one of the most closely watched legislative races in Pennsylvania.

Malone won the seat in a March 2025 special election, defeating Republican Josh Parsons by just 526 votes and becoming the first Democrat in more than a century to represent the Lancaster County-based district in the state Senate.

The district nevertheless remains Republican-leaning. Donald Trump carried it by roughly 15 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election, and registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in the district by more than 41,000 voters.

Jones, a Lancaster County businessman first elected to the Pennsylvania House in 2022, is challenging Malone as Republicans attempt to regain the seat.

Malone, a former East Petersburg mayor, is seeking a full four-year term after winning the special election last year.

The contest also carries statewide consequences. Republicans control the Pennsylvania Senate, while Democrats are seeking additional seats in November. Holding the 36th District is therefore important to Democratic efforts to change the balance of power in the chamber.

The candidates offer voters distinctly different political records and priorities.

Jones is a member of the Pennsylvania House Freedom Caucus and has emphasized lower taxes, gun rights, economic development and socially conservative policies. During the Senate campaign he has also spoken about regulating large data-center development.

Malone has emphasized affordability, healthcare costs and jobs and has portrayed himself as willing to break with his own party. He, too, has raised concerns about large-scale data centers.

Those differences are precisely the kind that a public candidate forum is designed to put before voters side by side.

Instead, barring another organization arranging an event that both candidates agree to attend, Lancaster County voters may reach Election Day without seeing Jones and Malone debate one another publicly.

And the 36th District is not an isolated case.

Every one of the five candidate forums the League attempted to organize in Lancaster County this election cycle has now been canceled.

The League says it is searching for alternatives.