The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) is a nonprofit corporation established in 1987 under the joint sponsorship of the Democratic and Republican political parties in the United States. The CPD sponsors and produces debates for U.S. presidential and vice-presidential candidates and undertakes research and educational activities relating to the debates. Between 1988 and 2020, the CPD organized all general election presidential debates.
In 2024, the campaigns of the major-party presumptive presidential candidates, Democratic incumbent Joe Biden and Republican former president Donald Trump, circumvented the CPD and committed to two debates outside the CPD's purview. When Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee after the first debate, she and Trump maintained the commitment to the second debate outside the CPD's purview.
History
Debates before the CPD
The first televised presidential debates were held between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy during the 1960 campaign. No general election debates were held in 1964, and Nixon refused to participate in any debate in 1968 and 1972. Beginning with the 1976 election, the League of Women Voters sponsored the televised Gerald Ford–Jimmy Carter debates, followed by the John B. Anderson–Ronald Reagan and Carter–Reagan debates for the 1980 election, and the Reagan–Walter Mondale in 1984.
Formation
After studying the election process in 1985, the bipartisan National Commission on Elections recommended "[t]urning over the sponsorship of presidential debates to the two major parties".
Debate format and venues
The CPD sponsored the debates in every presidential election from 1988 through 2020. Debates ran 90 minutes long, with no commercial interruptions.
Of the 33 debates conducted under its sponsorship, 30 were held on college or university campuses.
2024 presidential election
In January 2022, the Republican National Committee (RNC) warned the CPD that it planned to amend the Rules of the Republican Party to prohibit Republican presidential nominees from attending CPD-sponsored debates. The RNC unanimously passed the amendment to quit the CPD in April 2022.
In November 2023, the CPD announced its plans for debate dates and sites for the 2024 presidential election, with three presidential debates (to be held on September 16, October 1, and October 9) and one vice presidential debate (to be held September 25). However, the campaigns of both President Joe Biden and his challenger, former president Donald Trump, criticized the CPD's plans, including over format and timing (i.e., concerns that the debates would be held too late in the campaign season).
In May 2024, the Biden and Trump campaigns struck a deal to circumvent the CPD and participate in two debates (on CNN on June 27 and ABC on September 10), breaking a longstanding tradition of debates organized under the auspices of the CPD, On June 24, 2024, the CPD announced that it was "regrettably" releasing the sites it had selected for its 2024 debates from their contracts, adding that "CPD stands ready to sponsor 2024 debates should circumstances change." It has 501(c)(3) status.
As of 2024, the co-chairs of the commission were Frank Fahrenkopf (a former chairman of the Republican National Committee) and Antonia Hernández. The other co-chair was originally Paul G. Kirk, Jr., who served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Kirk and Ridings hold the title Co-Chair Emeriti. Hernandez, formerly a CPD vice-chair, was selected as co-chair in 2022.
As of 2024, the commission's board consists of eight members: Charles Gibson (a longtime television journalist, formerly of ABC News), John Griffen (managing director of Allen & Co.); Richard D. Parsons (a cable executive), Yvonne Hao (an investor and businesswoman), Jane Harman (a former Democratic congresswoman who later became director of the Woodrow Wilson Center)
Janet H. Brown has served as the CPD's executive director as well as fees from hosting institutions.
Complaints from third parties
thumb|[[Christopher Hitchens speaking at a September 2000 third-party protest at the commission's headquarters]]
Third parties have often criticized exclusion of their candidates from debates, due to the CPD's rule (established in 2000) that candidates must garner at least 15% support across five national polls to be invited to the national debates. The last candidate from outside the two major parties to participate in a CPD-sponsored debate was Ross Perot, who polled sufficiently high in his 1992 presidential campaign to debate George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton in all three debates; Perot's running mate, James Stockdale, also participated in the vice presidential debate. When Perot ran again in 1996, the CPD declined to invite him to the debates, finding that the Reform Party candidate had no "realistic chance to win" the election.
In October 2004, Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik and Green Party candidate David Cobb were arrested while protesting against CPD for excluding third-party candidates from the nationally televised debates in St. Louis, Missouri. In October 2012, Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein and vice-presidential nominee Cheri Honkala were arrested for disorderly conduct while trying to take part in the second presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.