The two major-party candidates for Illinois’ open U.S. Senate seat clashed Tuesday night over the war in Iran, immigration and affordability, with Republican Don Tracy largely embracing President Donald Trump’s policies and Democrat Juliana Stratton pledging to check presidential power.

Stratton, the state’s two-term lieutenant governor, called for an end to the war and pledged to vote against any additional federal funds to wage it. Tracy defended the war Trump started, calling the resulting rise in gas prices a “temporary spike” and saying that if it “was a just war” it would keep Iran from launching World War III.

The hourlong forum at WTTW-Ch.-11’s Northwest Side studios, two weeks before Election Day on Nov. 3, was the only scheduled face-to-face meeting between the major-party candidates for the seat held by veteran Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who is retiring at the end of his term in January. American Center Party candidate Whitfield Harrington did not meet the station’s qualifications to participate.

The sharp exchanges marked a departure from a largely low-key campaign. Stratton launched her general election TV ads only this month, while Tracy has relied on digital ads and highway billboards.

Tracy repeatedly accused Stratton of being a socialist and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and of pursuing an agenda to remove Trump from office.

“I think we know what my opponent will do her first two years in the term, and that will be do everything she can to impeach President Trump. That seems to be her platform. It’s f— Trump or impeach Trump,” he said, referring to a Stratton primary TV ad in February in which supporters said, “F−−− Trump.”

“I can tell you what will not help is going in with an agenda that all you’re going to focus on is impeaching the current president and going in as a Democrat socialist and trying to change our democracy from a free enterprise system,” said Tracy, 76, a Springfield attorney whose family owns the distributor Dot Foods. He is a former state Republican Party chair and former chair of the Illinois Gaming Board.

Stratton didn’t address Tracy’s socialist or impeachment comments on Tuesday, though previously she has disputed identifying as a democratic socialist. She didn’t make herself available for interviews after the forum.

Tracy’s socialist attacks follow a Republican playbook used nationally against progressive Democrats, as a troubled economy has polls showing voters souring on Trump and his party.

Democrats nationally, meanwhile, have attacked Republicans over the inflationary effects of the Iran war and Trump’s tariffs, as well as cuts to Medicaid and nutrition programs.

Stratton, 61, a former mediator, had served one term as a state representative from Chicago when Gov. JB Pritzker chose her as his running mate. She became the first Black person to serve as Illinois lieutenant governor. Pritzker and his considerable wealth have backed her campaign.

Stratton has touted her record with Pritzker and her support for abortion rights and women’s health. She backs a $25-an-hour federal minimum wage and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the agency’s deadly Operation Midway Blitz deployment to the Chicago area last fall.

Stratton, who rode the most progressive lane in winning the March Democratic primary nomination, said she would seek higher taxes on millionaires to pay for middle-class tax cuts.

She blamed “corporate greed,” encouraged by the Trump administration, for a host of social ills, including the nation’s housing shortage and the public’s lack of faith in government.

“Corporate greed is a big reason why so many people have lost trust. They don’t feel like their lives are changing based on anything that’s happening in Washington,” she said. “Their lives aren’t getting better, so we have to get in there and win. And that’s exactly, not just win, but then we have to deliver for people. We have to deliver on our promises and let people know that we are fighting for them and not corporate special interests.”

Though she called for an immediate increase in the federal minimum wage during the primary, Stratton struck a more conciliatory tone toward small businesses Tuesday. She said they would be brought to the table, as they were when Illinois phased in its $15-an-hour minimum wage.

But Tracy said a higher federal minimum wage would be “a death sentence for small businesses everywhere” and questioned whether it also would lead to higher inflation.

“Everything, every solution they have is spending more money and raising the cost of living,” he said. “The reports I’ve seen in The Wall Street Journal, anyway, indicate that real income is increasing now and the economy is doing pretty well.”

Tracy also defended Trump’s tariffs, saying that while “the jury’s still out” on them, “I just like the fact that this president recognizes that we’ve been subsidizing the world and we’ve been taken advantage of by the world with unfair trade practices.”

Stratton responded quickly.

“Well, first let me just clarify, the jury is not still out. The Supreme Court has ruled that these tariffs are illegal. That is not the jury still being out,” she said, adding she would seek refunds for consumers rather than having corporations retain the money.

“It has caused chaos. It has caused a trade war with our allies, and that is not the kind of leadership we need. And it’s why I’m going to hold this president accountable,” she said of tariffs.

Tracy also blamed Democrats for Congress’ failure to approve a new five-year farm bill. While Stratton blamed Republicans in Congress for tying the bill to cuts to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, Tracy defended SNAP work requirements as supporting “dignity in work” rather than “welfare dependency.”

Stratton said her call to abolish ICE came from a belief the agency cannot be reformed.

“We saw our immigrant neighbors being snatched off the streets by masked agents, stuffed into unmarked vehicles. We’ve seen people get killed by what I call Donald Trump’s private police force,” she said.

“Donald Trump said he was going after the worst of the worst. Donald Trump went after tamale vendors and daycare workers, our neighbors, and so I’m always going to stand up and speak out when we are seeing people getting killed in the streets by a federal agency,” she said.

But Tracy said those killed by ICE agents were “probably the worst of the worst, resisting arrest and they’re killed.” Two of the most high-profile people killed by federal immigration agents were U.S. citizens: Renee Good, a mother of three, and Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Veterans Affairs ICU nurse. They were killed in separate incidents in Minneapolis in January.

Tracy acknowledged the federal government “should have figured out a better way to enforce immigration law” in sanctuary cities such as Chicago and Minneapolis. He accused Stratton of supporting open borders by calling for ICE’s abolition and faulted her for joining efforts to encourage and “obstruct immigration enforcement.”

But Stratton said she wanted to see “a real path to legal citizenship” that included “investing in more immigration judges, more caseworkers, people who can help people navigate that process and get to the end where they can finally say they have reached legal status.”