General Campaign - Debates - History - PresidentialCampaign2004 -The Messages and Their Analysis - William Benoit

General Campaign

Presidential Debates

History of Presidential Debates

One of the earliest, well-known political debates featured Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. This was not, however, a presidential debate. In 1858, they held a series of seven debates for one of the U.S. Senate seats from Illinois. Douglas won this election, but two years later Lincoln beat Douglas in the presidential election of 1860.

The earliest presidential debate was broadcast on radio in 1948. This was a Republican primary debate between Thomas Dewey and Harold Stassen. Dewey won the Republican nomination but lost the general election to Harry S Truman. This may be the only debate to feature a proposition ("Should the Communist Party in the United States Be Outlawed?").

The first presidential debate in the general election campaign featured Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy (note that Kennedy practiced for this one in a Democratic primary debate against Hubert Humphrey in West Virginia). Nixon and Kennedy debated four times and Kennedy won a very close election. Some scholars believe that those who heard Nixon on the radio thought he did better than those who saw him on television, but this idea has been questioned recently.

No general debates were held in 1964, 1968, or 1972 (there were Democratic primary debates in 1968 and 1972). General campaign debates were revived again in 1976 and every campaign since 1976 has included at least one debate between the Republican and Democratic nominees for president. In 1980, Governor Ronald Reagan had one debate with President Jimmy Carter and another one with Congressman John Anderson (who was then running as an Independent). Primary debates frequently feature multiple candidates; the only general debates to have more than two contenders were in 1992 when H. Ross Perot joined President George Bush and Governor Bill Clinton.

One vice-presidential debate was held in 1976 and in 1984-2000.

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