U.S. Rep. Tom Allen has refused to two debates with primary challenger Tom Ledue.

Allen and Ledue are both running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. The winner will challenge U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in November.

Allen, the well-known candidate, has been campaigning since last year. Ledue, the long shot candidate, jumped in the race in January.

Ledue said he is running to encourage conversations that Allen wasn’t bringing up.

“Why would Tom Allen decline a chance to speak out for his positions on the issues that are impacting Mainers? Has he decided that his middle-class rallying cry is as non-inspiring to him as it is to the rest of Maine? Or that over 1/3rd of Maine is in or on the edge of poverty and more are heading that way and he is not offering them any reason to hope? Or that his record of inaction in Washington will be too embarrassing to face publicly?” the Ledue campaign wrote in a blog post.

Allen has not acknowledged Ledue’s challenge, instead focusing all resources on the November election. The campaign told the Associated Press that Allen was unable to debate because of scheduling conflicts.