Twelve presidential debates and nine forums were held between the candidates for the Republican Party's nomination for president in the 2016 United States presidential election, starting on August 6, 2015.
Presidential debates Schedule The Republican National Committee announced the 2015–2016 debate schedule on January 16, 2015. It revealed that 12 debates would be held, in contrast to the 20 debates that were held from 2011 to 2012. The announcement included which news organizations would host each debate, with Fox News and CNN having three each; and one each for ABC, CBS, NBC, CNBC, Fox Business Network, and a conservative media outlet to be announced. It had some changes during the primary.
The first live-broadcast debate occurred on Thursday, August 6, 2015, at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. It was seen on the Fox News Channel by 24 million viewers, making the debate the most watched live broadcast for a non-sporting event in cable television history. Due to the number of candidates running for nomination, Fox News aired two separate debates on August 6, with the less popular candidates going first, followed by the candidates with more support in the 'prime time' debate.
One debate per month followed through December 2015. The GOP candidates debated twice in January and three times in February 2016. On February 20, 2016, the RNC announced a thirteenth debate, which was to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Monday, March 21. This would have made for three debates in March, but the event was later canceled due to all but one of the candidates opting not to attend.
The following table lists the twelve RNC debates which took place, along with the dates, times, places, hosts, and participants. + Debates among candidates for the 2016 Republican Party U.S. presidential nomination No. Date Time Place Host Participants Participant, main debate. Participant, secondary debate. Invitee, main debate. Non-invitee. Absent invitee, main debate. Absent invitee, secondary debate. Out of race (withdrawn).BushCarsonChristieCruzFiorinaGilmoreGrahamHuckabeeJindalKasichPatakiPaulPerryRubioSantorumTrumpWalker RNC sanctioned debates 1 August 6, 2015 Quicken Loans ArenaCleveland, OHFox News/Facebook 2 September 16, 2015 Reagan LibrarySimi Valley, CACNN/Salem Radio 3 October 28, 2015 Coors Events Ctr.Boulder, COCNBC/Westwood One 4 November 10, 2015 Milwaukee TheatreMilwaukee, WIFox Business/WSJ 5 December 15, 2015 The VenetianLas Vegas, NVCNN/Salem Radio 6 January 14, 2016 N. Charleston ColiseumN. Charleston, SCFox Business/Facebook 7 January 28, 2016 Iowa Events CenterDes Moines, IAFox News/Google 8 February 6, 2016 8 p.m. ESTSt. Anselm CollegeGoffstown, NHABC News/IJReview.com 9 February 13, 2016 9 p.m. ESTPeace CenterGreenville, SCCBS News 10 February 25, 2016 7 p.m. CSTUniversity of HoustonHouston, TXCNN/SalemRadio/Telemundo 11 March 3, 2016 9 p.m. ESTFox TheatreDetroit, MIFox News 12 March 10, 2016 9 p.m. ESTUniversity of MiamiBankUnited CenterCoral Gables, FLCNN/Salem Radio/Washington Times*Participating in at least one debate listed above: Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida Neurosurgeon Ben Carson of Maryland Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas Businesswoman Carly Fiorina of California Former Gov. Jim Gilmore of Virginia Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina Former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana Gov. John Kasich of Ohio Former Gov. George Pataki of New York Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky Former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania Businessman Donald Trump of New York Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin
Polling effect The use of polling data had initially been criticized by polling firms such as highly regarded Marist. Prior to the first debate, Marist decided to temporarily suspend its national polling of preferences for the Republican nominee on the basis that using non-scientific polling data to select the bipartisan debate field puts polling firms such as Marist under pressure to produce high-precision results that are inherently impossible to provide at that point in time.
For instance, it would be difficult to determine the margin of error in any statistical sampling process like a preference poll (see statistical tie for tenth place, and more generally the independence of clones).
FiveThirtyEight made the point of the varying degrees of discretion the television networks gave themselves with their distinct debate invitation criteria, noting that polling data can only be seen as an objective method for selection of the debate participants, if the full and exact criteria are made clear in advance. The rhetoric about the pros and cons of the debate criteria, and the use of polls to winnow the field, partially displaced more substantive discussions of concrete policies that candidates are proposing.
In terms of many GOP candidates, the use of polls to winnow the field was criticized, especially by candidates with relatively low-polling numbers in August, including Rick Santorum and Lindsey Graham, who both said through the media that their exclusion from the main debates could prevent them from being competitive in the primaries and caucuses.
Candidates ranked from 8th to 12th place in the polls prior to the August 2015 debate, which included Chris Christie, Rick Perry, and John Kasich, downplayed the importance of being invited to any specific debate by emphasizing that delegate selection in early states is more important. Christie and fellow one-time candidate Rand Paul both had made the point that the early debates would give candidates a chance to communicate policy ideas to voters, and would subsequently be helpful in giving voters the information needed to decide which candidate to support.
Some in the media questioned Donald Trump's seriousness as a candidate, and pondered as to whether or not he should be included in the debates. Trump filed FEC paperwork to make his run official; however, despite doing well in the early polling which effectively guaranteed him an invitation to the Fox News and CNN debates, Trump expressed ambivalence about the value of the debates to his own campaign (saying he was not a debater and therefore did not know how well he would perform in one), and to the process in general (saying that politicians are always debating with little in the way of results).
Logistics With as many as 17 major candidates vying for the nomination, the prospect of including all the candidates in a debate presented logistical difficulties. For each of the debates held from August 2015 through January 2016, the sponsoring television network conducted both a debate broadcast in prime time preceded by another debate in the afternoon or early evening; the candidates who ranked higher in the polls were invited to the prime time debate, with lower-ranking candidates admitted to the earlier debate only. The earlier debates for the lower-ranked candidates were nicknamed the "undercard" debates or the "kids' table" debates.
Ratings The following table lists the ratings (number of estimated viewers) of the debates to date. Debate Channel Date Viewers 1 FNC August 6, 2015 24 million 2 CNN September 16, 2015 23 million 3 CNBC October 28, 2015 14 million 4 FBN November 10, 2015 13.5 million 5 CNN December 15, 2015 18 million 6 FBN January 14, 2016 11.1 million 7 FNC January 28, 2016 12.5 million 8 ABC February 6, 2016 13.2 million 9 CBS February 13, 2016 13.5 million 10 CNN February 25, 2016 14.5 million 11 FNC March 3, 2016 16.9 million 12 CNN March 10, 2016 11.9 million
August 6, 2015 – Cleveland, Ohio
The first debate was hosted by Fox News Channel, Facebook, and the Ohio Republican Party at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio – the same location as the future 2016 Republican National Convention. The two-hour debate invited the 10 highest-polling candidates, as measured by the average of the top five national polls selected by Fox. In addition, all other candidates who were "consistently being offered" as choices in national polls were invited to a one-hour debate earlier that same day. (Originally, the non-primetime debate had a minimum requirement that invitees were averaging at least 1% in Fox-recognized national polls, and was to be aired at noon for a total of two hours in duration.) The two-tiered debate hosted by Fox News on the 6th was qualitatively different from the C-SPAN forum held on the 3rd, for at least three reasons: it was a debate rather than a forum, where candidates were allowed to challenge each other, not just speak one at a time sequentially; it was divided into two tiers based on national polling numbers, only a subset of the candidates were on-stage (during each of the two distinct Fox News airtimes); and finally, Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee were participants in the primetime tier, but did not appear at the C-SPAN forum.
The candidates in the main debate were Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, and John Kasich. The moderators were Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly, and Chris Wallace.Hampson, Rick (November 15, 2016). "Fox anchor Megyn Kelly describes scary, bullying 'Year of Trump'". USA Today. Seven candidates who did not qualify were invited to participate in the 5p.m. forum; these were Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, Lindsey Graham, Carly Fiorina, Jim Gilmore, and George Pataki; the moderators for this debate were Bill Hemmer and Martha McCallum. Because of a rule-change announced by FOX one week before the debate-invitations went out, Graham, Pataki, and Gilmore were allowed to participate at 5p.m. despite averaging below 1% in the five selected polls. (Former IRS Commissioner Mark Everson was excluded from the 5p.m. tier, along with other relatively unknown candidates who did not meet the updated invitation-criteria of "consistently being offered to respondents in major national polls as recognized by Fox News.") The five selected polls were conducted by Fox News, Bloomberg,NATIONAL: TRUMP WIDENS LEAD CBS News, Monmouth University, and Quinnipiac University.
In the main event, Trump was afforded the most time to speak at the debate by the Fox moderators (at 10 minutes, 32 seconds) followed by Bush (8:31), Huckabee (6:40), Cruz (6:39), Kasich (6:31), Carson (6:23), Rubio (6:22), Christie (6:10), Walker (5:51), and Paul (5:10). The debate itself was viewed by 24 million people at its peak, setting records for the most-watched presidential primary debate ever and the highest-rated non-sports telecast in cable television history.
The two different debates received rather different analyses in terms of the performances of the candidates. In the lower tier debate with only 7 candidates, Carly Fiorina was overwhelmingly considered the best debater, while Perry and Jindal were also praised, and Gilmore, Graham, Pataki, and Santorum were criticized. In the primetime debate, frontrunner Donald Trump's overall performance was criticized as rude and erratic by many pundits, while others said his comments were popular and his criticisms were overdue, including his criticism of Bush's description of illegal immigration as an "act of love." Cruz, Rubio, Christie, and Huckabee received praise. Notable conflicts between candidates included Rand Paul vs. Christie over the NSA surveillance program, Paul vs. Trump on the latter's possible third-party run, Paul vs. Trump on healthcare, and Christie vs. Huckabee on the issue of welfare reform. Trump also clashed with two of the moderators – Kelly and Wallace – on the issue of sexism with Kelly, and the issue of illegal immigration with Wallace (specifically, Trump's claims that the Mexican government was deliberately sending criminals into America illegally).