The 2016 Republican debate season continues Wednesday in Simi Valley, Calif., with 11 candidates in the main debate. Here are a few graphs to put the 2016 debate schedule in context.
Debate Participation
Some pundits have heavily criticized CNN and Fox News for not allowing all of the major GOP candidates to participate in their primetime debates. To put that in perspective, there has never been a debate with more than 10 candidates – CNN’s will be the first debate with 11 candidates. Only four of the 72 debates between 1980-2012 have had 10 candidates. The last debate with 10 candidates before this primary cycle was in June 2007.
The 2016 primary cycle also limits the number of debates. The 2012 cycle had the most debates, with 20, while 2008 had 19. The 12 debates planned for the 2016 cycle are roughly in line with 2000’s 13 debates, while the three cycles preceding that all had fewer than eight debates.
Host States
Wednesday will be the fifth time California has hosted a GOP primary debate. That’s more than all but four other states, even though California is a late primary state and a Democratic stronghold in general elections. It likely has to do with the presence of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. Four of the five GOP debates in California have been hosted there.
Colorado and Wisconsin will host their first-ever GOP debates before the nomination is decided. The Aug. 6 debate was the first time Ohio hosted.
By the end of the 2016 cycle, New Hampshire will have hosted 20 GOP primary debates, followed by Iowa and South Carolina with 12 each. Combined, those three states account for more than half of all the debates. Sixteen states, plus Washington, D.C., have hosted a GOP debate in the past or plan to host one this primary cycle.
Calendar
The primary cycle has seemingly started earlier and earlier, although August is a late start relative to the past two GOP cycles. Historically, January has been the most crowded month for GOP debates. January 2012 was the most crowded month ever, when there were six debates. Only one debate will take place in January 2016.
February will be the most crowded month of the 2016 cycle, with three GOP debates planned. April 23 is the latest a Republican primary debate has ever occurred, between Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush in 1980, the only time the debate cycle dragged on into April. There have been only three debates in March, and none since 2000, but two debates are planned for March 2016.
Airtime
At the Aug. 6 GOP debate, Donald Trump spoke for more than twice as long as Rand Paul. Trump spoke for almost 11 minutes in the two-hour debate. Paul spoke for a little more than five minutes. The average was about seven minutes per candidate.
Only Trump and Jeb Bush received more than their fair share of speaking time, if you believe each candidate should have had equal time.
On the other hand, if you think higher-polling candidates should get more speaking time, Donald Trump didn’t speak enough, nor did Scott Walker. Bush spoke for about 12.5 percent of the debate, roughly equal to his share of support in the polls. Every other candidate’s portion of speaking time was larger than his share of support.
