Commission on Presidential Debates

Commission on Presidential Debates
Basic facts
Location:	Washington, D.C.
Type:	501(c)(3)
Top official:	Janet Brown, executive director
Founder(s):	Frank Fahrenkopf and Kenneth Wollack
Year founded:	1987
Website:	Official website

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) is a 501(c)(3) organization that sponsors, organizes, and establishes guidelines for general election presidential and vice presidential debates. Founded in 1987, the CPD sponsored every general presidential and vice presidential debate from 1988 to 2020. In 2024, Joe Biden (D) and Donald Trump (R) announced they would not participate in CPD-sponsored debates.

The CPD is controlled by an independent board. As of January 2024, Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. and Antonia Hernandez were serving as co-chairs of the commission and Janet Brown served as executive director of the board.

The CPD's funding primarily comes from the communities that host the debates and corporate, foundation, and private donors. It does not receive funding from the government or any political party.

CPD scheduled three presidential and one vice presidential debate in 2024. Leading up to the 2020 presidential election CPD hosted two presidential debates and one vice presidential debate.

Mission

The CPD listed the following mission statement on its website as of November 2023:

“

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) was established in 1987 to ensure, for the benefit of the American electorate, that general election debates between or among the leading candidates for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States are a permanent part of the electoral process. CPD’s primary purpose is to sponsor and produce the quadrennial general election debates and to undertake research and educational activities relating to the debates. The organization, which is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) corporation, sponsored all of the presidential debates in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. To meet its ongoing goal of educating voters, the CPD is engaged in various activities beyond producing and sponsoring the presidential debates. Its staff prepares educational materials and conducts research to improve the quality of debates. Further, the CPD provides technical assistance to emerging democracies and others interested in establishing debate traditions in their countries. In recent years, the staff worked with groups from Bosnia, Burundi, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Haiti, Jamaica, Lebanon, Niger, Nigeria, Peru, Romania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, and the Ukraine, among others. Finally, the CPD coordinates post-debate symposia and research after many of its presidential forums.

”

Background

The CPD was founded in 1987 by Paul Kirk and Frank Fahrenkopf in response to two studies conducted after the 1984 election by Georgetown University Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Harvard University Institute of Politics on the presidential election process and the value of debates. Georgetown and Harvard recommended general election debates become a standard part of the electoral process.

At that time, Kirk and Fahrenkopf were chairmen of the Democratic and Republican National Committees, respectively. They supported incorporating the CPD as a private, not-for-profit corporation with the stated purpose to “organize, manage, produce, publicize and support debates for the candidates for President of the United States.”

The CPD has also engaged in international work, providing assistance to foreign countries on the production of debates, candidate negotiations, and voter education.

Debate guidelines

Debate qualification criteria

The CPD's criteria for debate qualification has varied since 1988. Until 2000, a multi-factor set of criteria was used to determine "evidence of national organization, signs of national newsworthiness and competitiveness, and indicators of national public enthusiasm or concern, to determine whether a candidate had a realistic chance of election."

In 2000, the CPD adopted 15 percent support in national polling as a qualifying threshold. "It was the CPD’s judgment that the 15 percent threshold best balanced the goal of being sufficiently inclusive to invite those candidates considered to be among the leading candidates, without being so inclusive that invitations would be extended to candidates with only very modest levels of public support, thereby jeopardizing the voter education purposes of the debates," according to the CPD website.

In 2016, 2020 and 2024, the CPD applied three standards to its selection criteria: constitutional eligibility, ballot access, and electoral support.

“

The CPD’s nonpartisan criteria for selecting candidates to participate in the 2024 general election for presidential debates are: 1. EVIDENCE OF CONSTITUTIONAL ELIGIBILITY The CPD’s first criterion requires satisfaction of the eligibility requirements of Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution. The requirements are satisfied if the candidate: is at least 35 years of age; is a Natural Born Citizen of the United States and a resident of the United States for fourteen years; and is otherwise eligible under the Constitution. 2. EVIDENCE OF BALLOT ACCESS The CPD’s second criterion requires that the candidate qualify to have his/her name appear on enough state ballots to have at least a mathematical chance of securing an Electoral College majority in the 2024 general election. Under the Constitution, the candidate who receives a majority of the votes in the Electoral College, at least 270 votes, is elected President regardless of the popular vote. 3. INDICATORS OF ELECTORAL SUPPORT The CPD’s third criterion requires that the candidate have a level of support of at least 15% (fifteen percent) of the national electorate as determined by five national public opinion polling organizations selected by the CPD, using the average of those organizations' most recent publicly-reported results at the time of the determination. CPD will rely on the advice of a recognized expert or experts in public opinion polling in determining the polls it will rely upon. The polls to be relied upon will be selected based on the quality of the methodology employed, the reputation of the polling organizations and the frequency of the polling conducted. CPD will identify the selected polling organizations well in advance of the time the criteria are applied.

”

Debate format

Between 1992 and 2020, a single moderator was used in all debates, with one exception in 2016 where two moderators were used in one of the presidential debates.

Moderators were chosen by the CPD based on the following three criteria:

• Familiarity with the candidates and the major issues of the presidential campaign.
• Extensive experience in live television broadcast news.
• An understanding that the debate should focus maximum time and attention on the candidates and their views.

Several debate formats have been used throughout the years, including town meetings, seated discussions at a table, and debates segmented by issue.

The sites for debates are selected via a bidding process, in which interested institutions submit proposals to host the debates.

Minor party candidates

Since the CPD's founding in 1987, businessman Ross Perot and his running mate, James Stockdale, have been the only minor-party or independent candidates to participate in a presidential or vice presidential general election debate.

Several lawsuits and complaints have been filed against the CPD alleging the organization improperly barred minor parties from the debates through violations of Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules and constitutional and antitrust law. Between 1988 and 2016, a lawsuit was filed against the CPD in every presidential election cycle but 2008.

Noteworthy lawsuits since 2012 include the following actions:

• Level the Playing Field, et al. v. FEC: Level the Playing Field and three other plaintiffs filed administrative complaints and a rulemaking request with the FEC in 2014 and 2015 regarding the CPD's debate staging provisions and use of a polling threshold as criteria for participation in the 2012 general election debates. The FEC dismissed the complaints and rulemaking request after finding no violation of debate regulations.

Level the Playing Field filed suit. A district court ordered the FEC in February 2017 to conduct a second review of Level the Playing Field's complaints and rulemaking request after the court found that the FEC had not properly articulated the legal standard it had used to evaluate CPD's actions. The FEC reconsidered Level the Playing Field's complaints and dismissed them again.

In August 2017, Level the Playing Field filed an amended complaint alleging the FEC had not complied with the district court's order. On March 31, 2019, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the FEC.

• Johnson, et al. v. Commission on Presidential Debates: Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson, Green presidential nominee Jill Stein, and other related parties sued the CPD, alleging the organization violated their First Amendment rights and the Sherman Act by restraining competition and excluding them from participating in the 2012 presidential debates. The case was dismissed in 2016 by the district court and the dismissal affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 2017.

Previous debates

See also: Presidential debates, 2024

The following chart shows the date, participants, venue, and moderators for previous presidential and vice presidential debates coordinated by the CPD. Candidates marked with (VP) are vice presidential candidates. Candidates marked with (I) are independents.

Summary of presidential and vice presidential debates, 1988-2016
Date	Democratic candidate	Republican candidate	Other candidate	Venue	Moderator
September 25, 1988	Michael Dukakis	George H.W. Bush		Wait Chapel, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C.	Jim Lehrer, PBS
October 13, 1988	Michael Dukakis	George H.W. Bush		Pauley Pavillion, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif.	Bernard Shaw, CNN
October 5, 1988	Lloyd Bentsen (VP)	Dan Quayle (VP)		Omaha Civic Auditorium, Omaha, Neb.	Judy Woodruff, PBS
October 11, 1992	Bill Clinton	George H.W. Bush	Ross Perot (I)	Field House, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.	Jim Lehrer, PBS
October 15, 1992	Bill Clinton	George H.W. Bush	Ross Perot (I)	Robbins Field House, University of Richmond, Richmond, Va.	Carole Simpson, ABC News
October 19, 1992	Bill Clinton	George H.W. Bush	Ross Perot (I)	Wharton Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.	Jim Lehrer, PBS
October 13, 1992	Al Gore (VP)	Dan Quayle (VP)	James Stockdale (I) (VP)	Theater for the Arts, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Ga.	Hal Bruno, ABC News
October 6, 1996	Bill Clinton	Bob Dole		The Bushnell, Hartford, Conn.	Jim Lehrer, PBS
October 16, 1996	Bill Clinton	Bob Dole		Shiley Theater, University of San Diego, San Diego, Calif.	Jim Lehrer, PBS
October 9, 1996	Al Gore (VP)	Jack Kemp (VP)		The Bayfront Center's Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg, Fla.	Jim Lehrer, PBS
October 3, 2000	Al Gore	George W. Bush		University of Massachusetts, Boston, Mass.	Jim Lehrer, PBS
October 11, 2000	Al Gore	George W. Bush		Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C.	Jim Lehrer, PBS
October 17, 2000	Al Gore	George W. Bush		Centre College, Danville, Ky.	Bernard Shaw, CNN
October 5, 2000	Joe Lieberman (VP)	Dick Cheney (VP)		University of Massachusetts, Boston, Mass.	Jim Lehrer, PBS
September 30, 2004	John Kerry	George W. Bush		University of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla.	Jim Lehrer, PBS
October 8, 2004	John Kerry	George W. Bush		Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.	Charles Gibson, ABC News
October 13, 2004	John Kerry	George W. Bush		Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz.	Bob Schieffer, CBS News
October 5, 2004	John Edwards (VP)	Dick Cheney (VP)		Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio	Gwen Ifill, PBS
September 26, 2008	Barack Obama	John McCain		The University of Mississippi, Oxford, Miss.	Jim Lehrer, PBS
October 7, 2008	Barack Obama	John McCain		Belmont University, Nashville, Tenn.	Tom Brokaw, NBC News
October 15, 2008	Barack Obama	John McCain		Hofstra University, Hampstead, N.Y.	Bob Schieffer, CBS News
October 2, 2008	Joe Biden (VP)	Sarah Palin (VP)		Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.	Gwen Ifill, PBS
October 3, 2012	Barack Obama	Mitt Romney		University of Denver, Denver, Colo.	Jim Lehrer, PBS
October 16, 2012	Barack Obama	Mitt Romney		Hofstra University, Hampstead, N.Y.	Candy Crowley, CNN
October 22, 2012	Barack Obama	Mitt Romney		Lynn University, Boca Raton, Fla.	Bob Schieffer, CBS News
October 11, 2012	Joe Biden (VP)	Paul Ryan (VP)		Centre College, Danville, Ky.	Martha Raddatz, ABC News
September 26, 2016	Hillary Clinton	Donald Trump		Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y.	Lester Holt, NBC News
October 4, 2016	Tim Kaine (VP)	Mike Pence (VP)		Longwood University, Farmville, Va.	Elaine Quijano, CBS News
October 9, 2016	Hillary Clinton	Donald Trump		Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.	Martha Raddatz, ABC News, and Anderson Cooper, CNN
October 19, 2016	Hillary Clinton	Donald Trump		University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nev.	Chris Wallace, Fox News
September 29, 2020	Joe Biden	Donald Trump		Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio	Chris Wallace, Fox News
October 7, 2020	Kamala Harris (VP)	Mike Pence (VP)		The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah	Susan Page, USA Today
October 22, 2020	Joe Biden	Donald Trump		Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee	Kristen Welker, NBC News

Leadership

As of November 2023, the commission's leadership was as follows:

Co-Chairs

• Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr.
• Antonia Hernandez

Honorary Co-Chairs

• Jimmy Carter
• George W. Bush
• Barack Obama

Co-Chair Emeriti

• Paul G. Kirk, Jr.
• Dorothy S. Ridings

Director Emeritus

• Newton N. Minow

Board of Directors

• John C. Danforth
• Charles Gibson
• John Griffen
• Reverend John I. Jenkins
• Monica C. Lozano
• Richard D. Parsons
• Rajiv J. Shah
• Olympia Snowe

Executive Director

• Janet H. Brown

Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan were also listed as honorary co-chairs.

Finances

Debate sponsors

The following organizations and individuals were national sponsors between 1992 and 2020:

2020 National Sponsors

• Anheuser-Busch Companies
• Crowell & Moring LLP
• Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation
• Pentagram
• State and Federal Communications, Inc.
• United Airlines, Inc.

2016 National Sponsors

• Anheuser-Busch Companies
• AARP
• The Howard G. Buffett Foundation
• Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation
• The National Governors Association
• Philips

2012 National Sponsors

• Anheuser-Busch Companies
• The Howard G. Buffett Foundation
• Sheldon S. Cohen, Esq.
• Crowell & Moring LLP
• International Bottled Water Association (IBWA)
• The Kovler Fund
• Southwest Airlines

2008 National Sponsors

• Anheuser-Busch Companies
• BBH New York
• The Howard G. Buffett Foundation
• Sheldon S. Cohen, Esq.
• EDS, an HP Company
• International Bottled Water Association
• The Kovler Fund
• YWCA USA

2004 National Sponsors

• AARP
• American Airlines
• America’s Charities
• Anheuser-Busch Companies
• The Howard G. Buffett Foundation
• Sheldon S. Cohen – Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP
• Continental Airlines
• Discovery Channel
• EDS
• JetBlue Airways
• The Kovler Fund

2000 National Sponsors

Internet Sponsors

• AT&T
• Harris Interactive
• Alteon WebSystems
• ZoneOfTrust
• Speche Communications
• Webtrends
• Tellme Networks
• 3Com

General Debate Sponsors

• AARP, formerly American Association of Retired Persons
• Anheuser-Busch
• The Century Foundation
• The Ford Foundation
• Ford Motor Company
• The Knight Foundation
• The Marjorie Kovler Fund
• US Airways
• 3Com

1996 National Sponsors

• Anheuser-Busch
• Sheldon S. Cohen – Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP
• Dun & Bradstreet
• Joyce Foundation
• Lucent Technologies
• The Marjorie Kovler Fund
• Philip Morris Companies Inc.
• Sara Lee Corporation
• Sprint
• Twentieth Century Fund

1992 National Sponsors

• AT&T
• Atlantic Richfield
• Sheldon S. Cohen — Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP
• Dun & Bradstreet
• Ford Motor Company
• Hallmark
• IBM
• The Marjorie Kovler Fund
• J.P. Morgan & Co.
• Philip Morris Companies Inc.
• Prudential

Historical influence of the debates

The following analysis was based on polling and historical trends from 1984 through 2012.

About 67 percent of those who voted in 2008 said that the presidential debates between Barack Obama (D) and John McCain (R) helped them choose which candidate to vote for. Nearly 80 percent of Americans watched at least some portion of the debates, and 41 percent watched them all. Only the 1988 and 1996 debates were found to be less helpful in the decision-making process than helpful. Between 2000 and 2008, an average of 64 percent of voters found the debates helpful.

Since 1988, the number of American's who found the presidential debates helpful in the decision-making process has fluctuated from 70 percent in 1992 to 41 percent in 1996. According to the Pew Research Center, several factors have proven to make a debate significant in past elections. One is when the candidates are polling very closely. Another is when voters have "unresolved questions about the personal character of one, or both, of the candidates." In the 2016 debates between Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, both of these factors could come into play.

President Barack Obama prepares for his debate with Mitt Romney, October 2, 2012, in Henderson, Nevada

Even when debates have affected voter preferences in past elections, they have only impacted polling numbers by a few points. Looking at the numbers for the 1988 debate between George H.W. Bush (R) and Michael Dukakis (D), prior to the first debate, Bush was at 50 percent. After the debate, he dropped to 47 percent. His lead increased from 49 percent, prior to the second debate, to 50 percent after the debate. There have been some exceptions to this trend, however. In 1992, for example, Bill Clinton's (D) numbers dropped by 6 percent between the first debate and after the third debate. Ross Perot, the Independent Party candidate, gained 8 percent during the 1992 debates. In 1972, Jimmy Carter entered the debates with about a 10 percent lead but lost that lead after the debates.

Bill Clinton, in 1992, is the only candidate since 1988, who went into the debates with higher numbers than after the final debate. Clinton went from 50 percent to 44 percent. In contrast, only three winning candidates seem to have been unaffected by the debates: Clinton in 1996, George W. Bush in 1988, and Reagan in 1984, though their numbers fluctuated during the debates.

A study of campaign debates from 2000 to 2012 found that after a presidential debate 86.3 percent of voters from a nationwide sample remained unchanged in their preference for a presidential candidate, while 3.5 percent switched candidates, 268 went from undecided to decided, and 131 went from decided to undecided.

Noteworthy events

Biden, Trump announce they will participate in debates not sponsored by CPD (2024)

Both Joe Biden (D) and Donald Trump (R) said they do not plan on participating in debates hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). This will be the first time since the CPD was founded in 1987 that the major party nominees will not participate in CPD-sponsored debates.

On May 15, 2024, Biden and Trump said they had accepted an invitation from CNN to participate in a debate on June 27, 2024, and an invitation from ABC News to participate in a debate on September 10, 2024.

Biden Campaign Chairwoman Jennifer O'Malley Dillon said Biden would not participate in the CPD debates because they would start too late after early voting begins in some states. Dillon proposed holding debates without an in-person audience, excluding third party and independent candidates from the debates, having candidate microphones only be active while a candidate is speaking, and that the debates be hosted by any news organizations that hosted a Republican primary debate in 2024 and a Democratic primary debate in 2020, which would include ABC News, CBS News and CNN.

In April 2022, the Republican National Committee passed a resolution prohibiting Republican presidential candidates from participating in debates hosted by the CPD. Former Republican Party Chair Ronna McDaniel said: "Restoring faith in our elections means making sure our candidate can compete on a level playing field. [...] We are not walking away from debates, we are walking away from the commission on presidential debates because it’s a biased monopoly that does not serve the best interests of the American people."

Republican National Committee advances resolution to prohibit candidates from participating in debates run by the Commission on Presidential Debates (2022)

On February 4, 2022, during the Republican National Committee's Winter Meeting, party officials voted to advance a resolution that would prohibit Republican candidates from participating in debates run by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Republican Party Chair Ronna McDaniel said: "Restoring faith in our elections means making sure our candidate can compete on a level playing field. [...] We are not walking away from debates, we are walking away from the commission on presidential debates because it’s a biased monopoly that does not serve the best interests of the American people."

The RNC officially voted to withdraw from debates run by the Commission on Presidential Debates on April 14.

Recent news

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Commission on Presidential Debates - Google News

See also

• Presidential Elections
• Presidential election, 2024
• Presidential debates, 2024
• Presidential election, 2020
• Presidential debates, 2020
• Presidential election, 2016
• Presidential debates (2015-2016)

External links

• Commission on Presidential Debates