5 takeaways from congressional candidates Morgan McGarvey and Stuart Ray's first debate

The November race to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth is officially on.

The top two candidates for the 3rd Congressional District — Democratic state Sen. Morgan McGarvey and Republican businessman Stuart Ray — faced off during a Louisville Forum debate Wednesday.

Heading into the thick of election season, here are five takeaways from their first debate.

Who would a minimum wage increase be for?

The candidates had a stark difference on whether or not the country’s minimum wage should be higher.

McGarvey said he “absolutely” supports raising the minimum wage. Someone working full-time at minimum wage wouldn’t be able to support a family or take care of themselves, he said.

More:Who is Morgan McGarvey? What to know about John Yarmuth's would-be successor

“Minimum wage is not supposed to be a wage that sustains a family on one income for a year,” Ray retorted, adding McGarvey’s statement was “not a good analogy.”

Ray, who opposes raising the federal minimum wage, noted more places that typically depend on lower-paid workers are beginning to replace humans with “more and more kiosks.”

Stuart Ray kept zeroing in on inflation

Ray focused a lot on inflation and the economy, saying he will go to Washington to “pump the brakes” on “unsustainable spending.”

Throughout the event, he redirected questions back to inflation.

More:Who is Stuart Ray? What to know about the man who will face Morgan McGarvey for Congress

When asked about climate change, he said that even U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has said that he's surprised so few people are buying electric cars given how high gas prices are.

A question about LGBTQ rights was met with support for marriage equality, but he added “you can't worry about planning a wedding if you can't afford what's going on your kitchen table.”

Late into the event, moderator Lawrence Smith asked if Ray could explain the Republicans' strategy to reduce inflation. Ray said the nation needs to stop "unsustainable spending."

Higher education costs too much

McGarvey and Ray agreed on several topics during Wednesday’s debate.

One of them: Higher education is too expensive.

McGarvey called President Joe Biden’s recent loan forgiveness program “a good first step” but said more needs to be done to reverse a decades-long trend of underfunding higher education.

More:Long-suppressed report on Kentucky pensions' hedge fund deals is public at last

Ray called on universities to freeze their tuition rates to reduce financial demands on students. Instead of regular tuition increases, he said, institutions should dig into their “trillion” dollar foundations.

“Many of these universities are rich,” he said, and if they aren’t, lawmakers can step in. “But other than that, prices keep going up and up and up.”

JCPS, Louisville schools brought into the ring, again

Federal offices have minimal sway over local school districts, but that didn’t stop Jefferson County Public Schools from being a talking point.

McGarvey stuck to standard Democratic platforms for education, including pushing for adequate funding and universal preschool.

“We should teach accurate history,” he added, responding to a piece of a question about “critical race theory.”

More:Is critical race theory the same as racial equity? Here's what to know

Ray felt CRT “in many cases ... begins to rewrite history."

“It begins to open the door to other teachings,” he said. “The reality is parents need to have a say in what their children are taught in school.”

CRT is an academic framework used to examine how institutions, rather than individuals, perpetuate racial disparities. It is not used in K-12 schools.

Conservatives, though, co-opted the term to mean any type of racial equity effort, alleging "critical race theory" sees students solely based on skin color or asks kids to feel guilty because of their race. Neither are tenets of CRT, scholars have said.

Ray also said Wednesday that parents should be able to choose where their kids go to school. He called JCPS “one of the worst-performing school systems” and said “they’re dragging the entire state’s average down.”

About 1 of every 6 kids in Kentucky attend a JCPS school, meaning it has an outsized impact on the state’s overall education performance. More than two-thirds of JCPS students live in a low-income household — which tends to drive test scores down.

Ray leaves COVID out of answer, McGarvey doesn't

McGarvey scored one of the day’s few zingers with minutes left in the debate.

When asked if we are better or worse off than we were two years ago, Ray — like he did most of the day — honed in on the economy.

“I don't think there's anybody in this room that can answer that you're better off today than you were two, two and a half years ago,” Ray said. “I know we had very low gas prices.”

More:This Louisville Metro Council member is eyeing Morgan McGarvey's state Senate seat

While he touched on a few other topics, COVID-19 was not one of them.

McGarvey instantly pointed out the omission. He reminded the audience that two years ago, they wouldn’t be sitting in a crowded room eating lunch with few masks in sight.

“We were in the middle of a global pandemic,” McGarvey said. “And we are still trying to come out ahead.”

Reach Olivia Krauth at okrauth@courierjournal.com and on Twitter at @oliviakrauth.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify Stuart Ray's responses on climate change and GOP plans to curb inflation.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Morgan McGarvey, Stuart Ray talk higher ed, minimum wage, inflation