(WPRI) — The two candidates running for Rhode Island's U.S. Senate seat up this year squared off Friday in an exclusive 12 News debate, the only one the pair are scheduled to do this fall.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Republican state Rep. Patricia Morgan stuck to their campaign themes while debating topics such as immigration, the defunct westbound Washington Bridge , the Senate filibuster and more.

The 30-minute, commercial-free debate was moderated by Target 12 Chief Investigative Reporter Tim White and 12 News Politics Editor Ted Nesi . The candidate who wins in November will serve a six-year term that starts in January.

Morgan, who has criticized Whitehouse before the debate about not securing enough federal money for the bridge, suggested that election season is the reason Whitehouse and the rest of the delegation secured a $95 million grant announced earlier this week.

"I think an election really sharpens politicians' attention to their constituents," Morgan said. She reiterated her criticism of how state leaders have handed the bridge crisis, saying it reinforces the need for an inspector general's office in Rhode Island.

Whitehouse responded by noting the newly announced federal grant came from a U.S. Department of Transportation program modeled in part on legislation he proposed years ago.

"It has funded the viaduct going by Providence," he said. "It has funded the 146 improvements, it has funded the renovation beginning at the Newport Bridge, and it now has added nearly $100 million to the Washington Bridge."

Both candidates were also asked if R.I. Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti should stay in his position.

Morgan said Alviti "should have been fired in 2015 as far as I'm concerned." Whitehouse declined to answer the question, saying he's "not going to be a critiquer of the state."

On immigration, Whitehouse praised the bipartisan border security bill that passed the Democratic-controlled Senate earlier this year but died in the GOP-led House of Representatives.

Whitehouse said he had expected House Republicans to back that bill "until Donald Trump said, 'I would rather have this as an issue than I would have a solution to this problem.'"

Morgan countered that the legislation failed "because the American people rejected it."

"It was a bad bill," Morgan said. "It codified, it put into law all the bad policies that have allowed 10 to 15 million illegal immigrants to stream into our country."

The candidates, while both wanting to keep the Senate's filibuster rule in general, differed on the details. Whitehouse said he would keep the supermajority requirement but change how it works.

"The problem in the Senate is actually the quorum call," he said. "The quorum call allows one member of the minority party to stop action on the Senate floor until the majority party can bring 50 members and produce a quorum."

Morgan said she prefers to keep the filibuster rule untouched.

"We need to keep the filibuster," she said. "It gives the minority a voice and it is part of our democracy."

When asked if former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, both candidates acknowledged that he did lose.

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