Candidates for the state senate and for seats on the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners will speak during candidate forums Wednesday.

At Wednesday morning's Power Breakfast, hosted by the Greater Wilmington Business Journal, all six county commissioner candidates will be on stage for 40 minutes to talk about issues important to the region’s business community. 

The candidates, including incumbent Commissioner Jonathan Barfield, are competing to fill three positions on the board. The other hopefuls are Leslie Cohen, Deb Hays, Kyle Horton, Bill Rivenbark and former commissioner Skip Watkins.

The commissioner candidate session will be followed by a 40-minute discussion with the two state senate candidates, Sen. Harper Peterson (D-New Hanover) and former senator Michael Lee, a Republican. Peterson narrowly beat Lee in the election two years ago. 

The discussions will be streamed starting at 8 a.m. for free on Facebook Live on the Business Journal’s Facebook page. 

Wednesday's Power Breakfast is part of a partnership between the Business Journal, Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, Business Alliance for a Sound Economy, Cape Fear Realtors and Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association to help educate the community about local candidates. 

On Sept. 22, the Chamber hosted a forum with candidates for the New Hanover County Board of Education. The Chamber will host candidates for North Carolina House at 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 27.

Early voting, also known as one-stop voting, began Oct. 15 and continues through Oct. 31. Election Day is Nov. 3.