2018 Midterm Elections—General Election Gubernatorial Debates

A total of 104 general election gubernatorial debates were noted (much more than the 61 noted in U.S. Senate races).  Seventy-five of the 104 debates occurred in the month of October.  The number of debates varied by state from zero (AL, NV), to one (7 states) or two (7 states), three (11 states) and four or more (9 states).

< Sep.

Oct.

Nov.

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

AL

0

AK

4

09/10o

o

x

x

AZ

2

09/24o 09/25

AR

3

06/30o (09/10)

o

CA

1

r

CO

8

x,x

x

x

x

x

x

x

CT

6

(09/05) 09/12 09/26o

o

o

11/05r

FL

2

x

x

GA

1

x

HI

2

x

x

ID

3

x

x

x

IL

4

09/20o

x

x

x

IA

3

x

x

x

KS

4

09/05o 09/09o

o

o

ME

7

09/10o

o

o

o

o

o

o

MD

1

09/24

MA

3

x

x

11/01

MI

2

x

x

MN

6

08/14 08/31 09/19

r

x

11/02

NE

1

08/30

NV

0

NH

3

x

r

11/01

NM

3

09/19

x

x

NY

1

x

OH

3

09/19

x

x

OK

2

09/24

x

OR

3

o

x

x

PA

1

x

RI

3

09/27o

o

11/01o

SC

2

x

x

SD

3

x

o

x

TN

3

x

x

x

TX

1

09/28

VT

6

09/14r

x

x

o

r

11/01

WI

2

x

x

WY

5

o

o

o

o

x

M 01

T 02

W 03

T 04

F 05

S 06

S 07

M 08

T 09

W 10

T 11

F 12

S 13

S 14

M 15

T 16

W 17

T 18

F 19

S 20

S 21

M 22

T 23

W 24

T 25

F 26

S 27

S 28

M 29

T 30

W 31

104

23

2

3

2

2

2

2

-

3

5

3

1

3

2

-

3

3

6

3

3

1

1

2

5

6

6

1

-

1

2

2

-

6

Methodology: Debates were identified by a close reading of news articles on the various races which should have captured all the major debates.  To develop this research further one would want to double check the above information with key staffers from the campaigns, and also see if they would offer insights on their thinking and the debate negotiations.

"o" = debate with more than two candidates.  "r" = radio.

Gubernatorial Debates

# Debates	0	1	2	3	4+
# Races	2	7	7	11	9

Analysis
As noted on the Senate debates page there were significantly more gubernatorial debates than Senate debates.  A key explanation can be found in the fact that in the 35 Senate races, 31 incumbent Senators were seeking re-election (+), and thus were in a strong position to dictate debate terms.  By comparison in the 36 governor races, only 19 incumbents were competing in the general election (+).

Negotiations on the number, timing and rules of debates usually involves a lot of back and forth.  Challengers often seek many debates, sometimes as many as ten.  Yet for an incumbent in a strong position there may be little advantage to participating in debates.  There is inherent pressure that, in terms of the functioning of our democracy, there should be at least one or two debates, but some candidates will not engage.  For example in Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey (R) refused to debate challenger Walt Maddox (D).  Amazingly there were also no debates in the open Nevada race. 

Less populous states showed a propensity for more debates (i.e. ME, VT, CT, MN and WY), possibly because of a tradition of town halls or grassroots democracy, although NH only had three debates.  For some reason tbd Colorado had the most debates as identified by this survey.

Sometimes debates that the campaigns have agreed upon do not happen. In Florida, for example, Hurricane Michael prompted cancellation of the first debate between DeSantis and Gillum, scheduled to be held on Oct. 16 in Orlando.  In Georgia, Brian Kemp (R) withdrew from a debate set for Nov. 4 so he could rally with President Trump; finger pointing between the Kemp and Abrams campaigns ensued and the second debate never occurred. 

In terms of timing, late primaries are a consideration; four states had primaries in September.  The start of early voting is another factor, some of these debates occur after people have voted.  Campaigns usually avoid scheduling debates too close to Election Day.  It also appears that some strong incumbents may agree to one or two debates, but try get them out of the way early, in August or September, as happened in Arizona, Maryland and Nebraska. 

Rules and formats vary considerably; some enforce strict time limits such as one-minute or ninety-second responses and others are more open.  The setting, whether in a studio or before a live audience, is very important.  Choice of moderator can be important as Pennsylvania voters learned; Alex Trebek's conversational approach to the only gubernatorial debate was widely panned. 

Televised debates attract most of the attention because of the audience they can draw, but debates may be broadcast only on public access TV, radio or livestreamed.  From the point of view of educating voters, these events have no less merit.  Additionally there are candidate forums, where, for example, the candidates may appear on stage at the same time but be given the questions in advance or engage in more of a moderated conversation. 

Third party and independent candidates had a hard time getting on the stage as they usually do not meet a threshhold of support.  Public broadcasters are more likely to include these candidates than commercial broadcasters.  More than two dozen of the debates did include more than the two major party candidates.  All the debates in Kansas, Maine and Rhode Island, which had strong independent candidates, included those candidates.  Third party candidates made very few debates, however.