Three presidential debates -- two Republican and one Democratic -- are scheduled to be held in New Hampshire ahead of the state's first-in-the-nation primary.
A debate between Democratic hopefuls Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson will be held on Jan. 8 at 11:15 a.m. at New England College in Henniker. It will be broadcast on SiriusXM at 7 p.m. President Joe Biden will not participate. He did not sign up for the primary in deference to changes the Democratic National Committee made to the nominating calendar.
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The second debate will be held at 9 p.m. on Jan. 18, three days after the Iowa GOP caucuses. The debate is being hosted by WMUR and ABC News and will be held at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. The full list of participating candidates has not yet been released, but to be invited to participate candidates will need to finish in the top three in Iowa or receive at least 10% in two national polls.
The final debate, hosted by CNN, is scheduled for Jan. 20, two days before the primary. Candidates will be invited to participate in the debate "if they receive at least 10% in three separate national and/or New Hampshire polls of Republican primary voters that meet CNN’s standards," the network said. Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis have already met that mark and have said they will participate. Donald Trump has also been invited to participate but isn't expected to attend.
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More New Hampshire Primary news
The New Hampshire Primary is scheduled to be held on Jan. 23, Secretary of State David Scanlan announced in November.
New Hampshire has held the nation's first presidential primary for the past century, successfully fending off challenges from other states, thanks in large part to a state law that gives the secretary of state sole authority to set the date and mandates that it be at least a week before any similar contest.
By setting its primary date on Jan. 23, New Hampshire defied a new Democratic calendar that has South Carolina leading off presidential primary voting on Feb. 3 and Nevada going three days later.
The changes, made at Biden's request, are meant to better empower Black and minority voters by leading off in a state with more people of color than New Hampshire has.
But Scanlan has countered that no state truly represents the nation's demographics and that New Hampshire deserves to stay first for a multitude of reasons: It's neither red nor blue, it's a small state geographically and it has a small media market. Voter turnout is high and citizens are engaged, he said.
There will be 21 names on the Democratic ballot and 24 on the GOP ballot in next year's primary. In 2020, 33 Democrats and 17 Republicans signed up. The all-time high was in 1992, when 61 people got on the ballot.
