U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) and challenger Marty Williams exchanged verbal blows at Main Street Baptist Church in Smithfield on Tuesday night.

The two gathered for a political candidate forum hosted by the Isle of Wight County NAACP chapter. Both candidates are running for Virginia’s 3rd District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Scott, the district incumbent, is serving his 12th term in Congress in the House of Representatives. Prior to this, he has served in the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate.

Williams, running as a Republican, currently serves as the chairman of the Chesapeake Planning Commission.

The event began with introductory statements by the candidates.

Following this, the moderator chose questions from the audience, which covered a range of topics including the Second Amendment, tax spending, mandatory minimum sentences and racial profiling.

There was heated debate over tax spending in relation to the military.

“If you are cutting taxes, you can’t increase the military,” Scott said.

Williams stressed cutting taxes for the benefit of local businesses and compensating for military spending in other ways.

“We have to bring the money back home to us,” Williams said.

The topic of mandatory minimums came about with the racial profiling discussion. These are laws that mandate the minimum number of years in prison a person with certain charges must serve.

Scott tied racial profiling with the nation’s crowded incarceration facilities.

“We’ve bloated the prisons with low-level criminals with first offenses,” he said.

Williams, who served with the Chesapeake Police Department for 25 years, addressed the injustices of racial profiling but also pointed out law and order must be upheld.

“Racial profiling is wrong; criminal profiling is not,” he said.

Regarding the Second Amendment, Scott suggested stricter background checks to prevent the selling of high-powered rifles into the wrong hands.

The candidates have four to five speaking engagements remaining before the Nov. 8 election date.