Citing Sandy, Sen. Scott Brown Pulls Out of Final Mass Senate Debate
Hurricane Sandy isn't just affecting the presidential race. It's hitting farther down the ballot as well.
The campaign for Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., who is in a tightly contested race with a Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren, announced that Brown would not be participating in the fourth and final televised Senate debate scheduled to take place on Tuesday night.
"The Scott Brown campaign today announced that out of concern for the hardship faced by people in the path of Hurricane Sandy that he will not be participating in tomorrow's fourth and final debate," Brown communications director Colin Reed announced in a prepared statement. "It is simply not appropriate to go forward with a political debate when a disaster strikes. The focus for all of us before, during and after the storm needs to be on emergency response and disaster relief, not campaigns and politics."
In Maine, a Senate debate also scheduled for Tuesday was canceled because of Sandy. That debate will now take place on Friday.
It is not clear at this time whether the Massachusetts debate will be rescheduled.
The Warren campaign did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.
ABC News currently rates the Massachusetts Senate race as a toss-up.