“With all the offices that are being voted on, this is an incredibly important election for Michigan,” said KC Perlberg, ASMSU’s vice president for governmental affairs. “That led us to say — let’s bring a debate to campus.”

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., is retiring at the end of his term, meaning there will be no U.S. Senate incumbent on the Michigan ballot for the first time since 1994.

Current U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Twp., and former Republican Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land are facing off for the open seat. Perlberg said ASMSU sent a letter in early June inviting both camps to participate in a debate on campus.

According to Perlberg, the Peters camp replied within four days of ASMSU sending the letter, stating they would “love to accept” the invitation for a debate in East Lansing.

However, other than a response from Land campaign confirming they received the invitation, there has been no further communication from the Republican nominee to ASMSU. In addition to the letter, Perlberg said he has reached out several times to Land’s representatives through phone, email and in-person at Land’s campaign headquarters in Farmington Hills.

“(Terri Lynn Land’s) campaign is unable or unwilling to produce anybody that will discuss debate-related events,” Perlberg said.

The State News reached out to the Land camp regarding the possibility of a debate and received an email response stating, “the campaign is currently evaluating opportunities. We will be in touch with updates.”

The Peters for Michigan campaign has hoped for an open discussion between the two candidates, but Lynn has not responded.

“We’ve been wanting debates and pushing for them for a while,” said Zade Alsawah, deputy communications director for the Peters campaign.

But the election is less than two months away, so the window of opportunity for a debate is quickly closing, MSU’s Vice President for State Affairs David Bertram said.

“Let’s say the stars aligned and both sides said ‘yes, let’s go,’ then maybe we would be able to do it,” Bertram said. “But because we haven’t been able to even talk about it to discuss time, format, and date, I think we’re really down to a week or ten days at the most to pull something off.”

With no response from the Land campaign in months, Perlberg admits the chances for a debate on MSU’s campus between the two candidates do not look good.

“It bugs me because they’re asking for our vote and asking to be our senator, and this is part of the job,” Perlberg said. “This is part of showing how you’re going to represent the state, and I think we’re at least owed the courtesy of sitting down and talking through it.”