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CHICAGO — The leading candidates for Illinois Governor will meet face-to-face for the first time in a set of exclusive prime-time debates hosted by Nexstar Media Inc. next month.

Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Republican nominee, State Sen. Darren Bailey, have both agreed to participate in two one-hour debates covering current issues central to voters both regionally and statewide.

The first will now take place on October 6th at Braden Auditorium on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal.

The second debate will be held on October 18th at the WGN-TV studios in Chicago.

Both events will take place at 7 p.m., airing live on Nexstar television stations serving Illinois and reaching voters in nearly every corner of the state. The debates will also be livestreamed on the WGN9+ app on Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV; online at WGNTV.com/Live and the WGN News mobile app.

The general election for Governor of Illinois is scheduled to take place on November 8, 2022. Early voting begins September 29th. To register to vote, please visit https://ova.elections.il.gov/