The New Campaign Strategy: Don’t Debate

On-stage debates have long been treated as race-defining moments—the event in which the candidates, unable to lean on spin doctors or teleprompters, show who they really are. 

Of this year’s 36 races for governor, 21 races, or 58%, won’t see a debate between the two major-party candidates, according to a recent ABC News analysis. The same ABC News analysis pegs the share of Senate races likely to reach Election Day without a debate at 60%.

The Brookings Institution has been tracking this trend for a quarter century. In 2000, the top five most competitive Senate races had a combined 17 debates. That number hit single digits in 2018.

Some political pros also question how much debates even matter, particularly in the most hard-fought races where voters are being bombarded with ads. In the fierce Texas Senate race, for instance, voters there have already seen more than $425 million in political ads and counting. Or, as one savvy ad buyer noted, more than four times the cost of the final season of Game of Thrones.