joining me to co-moderate this debate is lindsay hopman university of delaware professor of communication and political science. the candidates in this race for the u.s. senate includes democrat chris coons the incumbent republican kevin wade. gentleman welcome to both of you. tonight's debate will be divided into two parts. following a one minute opening statement from each of our candidates lindsey hoffman and i will post will pose questions to the candidates. responses are limited to one minute and 30 seconds with a 1-minute rebuttal and then there will be the opportunity for moderator discussion. the second part of our debate includes questions posed by students from the university of delaware and delaware state university. responses in this portion are limited to one minute. each candidate will also have one minute for a closing statement. in our studio audience here in the mitchell hall theatre on the university of delaware campus understands there will be no applause during tonight's debate debate. we just tell the clients ask prior to coming out this evening to determine our order