Republicans will nearly halve the number of debates held during the 2016 GOP primary, officials announced Friday.
The Republican National Committee has scheduled nine candidate debates from August 2015 through March 2016.
It’s a significant reduction from 2012, when the party sanctioned 20 debates — a number that critics say handicapped the party’s chances of winning the presidency.
“This schedule ensures we will have a robust discussion among our candidates while also allowing the candidates to focus their time engaging with Republican voters,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said.
Fox News will moderate the first debate in Ohio in August .
It will be followed by a CNN-moderated debate in California.
Additional debates will be held at least monthly, moderated by ABC, Fox Business, CBS and NBC/Telemundo.
The RNC said they have tentatively set three additional debates in March 2015, bringing the total to 12. One of the three pending debates would be moderated by conservatives, RNC officials said.
The debate schedule is aimed at preventing the divisive and volatile GOP primary of 2012 which allowed different candidates to surge in the polls but plummet later, making it hard for the party to coalesce around one candidate.
The 2012 nominee, Mitt Romney, complained that the process wrapped up too late for him to effectively raise funds to combat President Obama’s campaign attacks against him.
But the debate-heavy 2012 primary helped boost little-known conservative candidates, including businessman Herman Cain and Rep. Michelle Bachmann, leaving some critics to worry that the new schedule will shut out conservatives.
The list of debates is below:
1. Fox News
August 2015 — Ohio
2. CNN
September 2015 — California
3. CNBC
October 2015 — Colorado
4. Fox Business
November 2015 — Wisconsin
5. CNN
December 2015 — Nevada
6. Fox News
January 2016 — Iowa
7. ABC News
February 2016 — New Hampshire
8. CBS News
February 2016 — South Carolina
9. NBC/Telemundo
February 2016 — Florida
