‘Are you done?’ Barr and McGrath battle it out in their only debate.

Democratic congressional candidate Amy McGrath has spent the past few months talking about how she plans to run a different kind of campaign, one without negative attack ads to help restore civility in politics.

But from the opening question of the only debate between U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and McGrath on Kentucky Educational Television, the two candidates went on the attack.

Though the candidates talked about tax reform, the national debt and election security, the majority of the debate centered around the one issue McGrath has made the centerpiece of her campaign, health care. Not mentioned were immigration and abortion, two issues Barr has featured prominently in his attack ads.

At one point, as McGrath was accusing Barr of lying about her stance on health care, the congressman interrupted her.

“Is this a positive campaign?” Barr said. “Calling me a liar?”

McGrath paused.

“Are you done?” she said before continuing.

Across the country, House Republicans have had to defend their votes for an unpopular bill to replace the Affordable Care Act that ultimately failed in the Senate.

Barr defended the bill, saying it was one of the best opportunities Congress had to reform entitlement programs, while emphasizing that he supported replacing the Affordable Care Act in a way that wouldn’t eliminate protections for people with preexisting conditions.

McGrath said she wants to make the Affordable Care Act better and emphasized her support of a Medicare buy-in plan for people over the age of 55 and a public option for health insurance.

But the focus quickly turned to whether McGrath supports a government-run single-payer health care system and whether or not Barr lied when he said she did.

Barr repeated a phrase that has been used in his ads, saying she thought “single-payer is the way to go,” and frequently talked about the economic impact that a proposed single-payer system would have on the country.

“Hold on to your wallets,” Barr said at one point in the conversation.

McGrath pushed back, calling Barr a liar for continuing to say she supported a single-payer system.

“Look, I came from an institution where if you lie, cheat or steal you get kicked out,” McGrath said.

Around 40 minutes into the debate, Libertarian candidate Frank Harris noted that he hasn’t gotten much airtime and directed people to his campaign website for more information about his positions.

“I’ll have more complete answers on all the issues,” Harris said.

Harris help shift the debate to the national deficit, which turned to the Republican tax reform bill. Barr has touted the legislation on the campaign trail, christening it the “middle class tax cuts.” He said it contained several provisions that helped middle- and lower-income Americans, including raising the child tax deduction and eliminating a mandate that people have health insurance.

McGrath criticized the bill, calling it a “tax scam” and saying that it primarily benefited the wealthy and corporations. When asked if she would repeal the bill, McGrath said she would repeal parts of it.

“I would most certainly look at corporations and the top one percent because they have been the biggest beneficiaries of this economy Congressman Barr is talking about,” McGrath said.

Often, the debate turned back to civility. McGrath talked about how politicians need to stop taking statements out of context as she criticized Barr, who would push back to question the assertion that she was running a clean campaign.

He pointed to attack ads from outside groups and the fact that she called him “Mitch McConnell’s handpicked congressman” in a campaign announcement video that went viral nationally.

“With all due respect, no one should be under the impression that my opponent has run this clean, positive campaign,” Barr said.

Barr was also critical of McGrath’s decision to only accept two debates, one of which Barr declined. Barr has appeared at several community forums and has started sharing photos of him standing next to empty podiums on the campaign trail.

When host Renee Shaw said the show had run out of time, both Barr and Harris quickly said they’d agree to another debate.

“Amy?” Barr asked, right as the sound cut out.

This story was originally published October 29, 2018 at 10:02 PM.