Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder and former state Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher face voters together for the first and only time Wednesday, Oct. 21, in Spring Hill.

The congressional candidate forum for Tennessee's 5th District begins at 6:40 p.m. at the Emerson at Commonwealth Clubhouse, 2968 Commonwealth Drive. Doors open at 6 p.m. for networking. The candidates will take audience questions after the formal program, and informal time with both nominees follows at 7:15 p.m.

The Spring Hill Chamber of Commerce, Williamson, Inc. and the Maury Alliance are co-hosting the event, the Williamson Herald reported. The venue is a late change from the originally announced location, made possible by John Maher Builders, according to the Herald.

Each candidate will answer four to five questions before the floor opens to the audience.

Molder, the Democratic nominee, and Hatcher, the Republican nominee, have traded competing proposals on debate logistics for weeks. Molder proposed three debates across the 17-county district, according to the Williamson Scene. Hatcher's campaign said at the time that he was "committed to debating" but a spokesperson called Molder's proposal "one politician's political stunt." Wednesday's forum is the only joint public appearance that materialized.

A Molder-campaign poll conducted Oct. 6 showed Hatcher leading 46% to 41%, with 11% of voters undecided, the Columbia Daily Herald reported. That narrowed from an August poll by the same campaign that had Hatcher ahead 48% to 40%. Impact Research surveyed 552 likely voters with a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points.

Affordability has been a central theme for both candidates. In an August interview with the Williamson Scene, Hatcher said, "If you're driving a pickup truck and your tank's empty, you're talking about $100 worth of fuel or more, and then you got the price of groceries and childcare and your mortgage and rent, and you've got people being just squeezed …"

Hatcher, a fifth-generation dairy farmer, defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles in the August Republican primary. Molder was elected mayor of Columbia in 2018.

Early voting runs through Thursday, Oct. 29. Williamson County polls are open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. The Longview Recreation Center at 2909 Commonwealth Drive in Spring Hill is one of eight early-voting sites in the county. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.