Minor party and independent presidential candidates are generally kept out of debates with their major party opponents. Generally, minor party and independent presidential candidates do get a chance to debate each other, but many such candidates seem afraid to “debate down”, i.e., debate with some of their opponents who have smaller campaigns.
“Debating down” paid off handsomely for Norman Thomas in 1948, however. The 1948 Republican presidential primary process had a radio debate between Thomas Dewey and Harold Stassen, on May 17, 1948, just before the Oregon Republican presidential primary. That was the first presidential candidates’ debate in U.S. history. It stimulated calls for a general election debate. Henry Wallace, a former vice-president of the U.S., and the Progressive Party nominee in 1948, challenged Harry Truman and Thomas Dewey to a general election debate. Truman and Dewey refused. Then Norman Thomas, Socialist Party presidential candidate in 1948, challenged Wallace to a debate. Wallace refused. Then Edward Teichert, the Socialist Labor Party presidential candidate, challenged Thomas to a debate. Thomas accepted, but said that the Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate, Farrell Dobbs, should also be invited. Teichert then refused, so Thomas and Dobbs had the nation’s first-ever general election presidential debate.
Thomas helped himself considerably by participating. The debate was in New York city, and attracted media attention in New York. At the November 1944 election, Thomas had only polled 10,553 votes in New York state, whereas the 1944 showing for the Socialist Labor presidential candidate in New York had been 14,352. But at the 1948 election within New York state, the results were: Thomas 40,879; Teichert (the Socialist Labor candidate) 2,729; Dobbs (the Socialist Workers candidate) 2,675. Thomas gained enormous respect for being principled enough to debate other presidential candidates who had smaller campaigns.
The Public Relations standard is ‘make sure they spell my name correctly…….’
[No publicity is the only bad publicity????]
In 1980, when President Carter initially refused to debate, Ronald Reagan and the independent John Anderson debated. Reagan and Anderson had already debated a number of times, when both were seeking the Republican nomination.
About a week before the election, Carter finally agreed to debate Reagan. Carter refused to allow Anderson into the debate.
Reagan carried 44 states.
Norman Thomas, of course, was the grandfather of Evan Thomas of Newsweek magazine.
I believe it wasn’t the first time that Norman Thomas debated another third party candidate. I remember reading someplace that Thomas debated Comgressman William Lemke, the 1936 Union Party candidate for president.
Fascinating info for those interested in Norman Thomas and the history of how Socialist candidates interacted (or, more typically, didn’t interact) with Socialist Labor, Socialist Workers, and Communist candidates. What is the source for this info? New York Times?
The source of the article are various articles from the 1948 issues of the newspapers of the Socialist Party, the Progressive Party, the Socialist Labor Party, and the Socialist Workers Party.
are there any transcripts of the Thomas-Dobbs debate? … on German public TV, apart from the major debate with the leaders of the big parties, there was since 1994 always some days before the general elections a programm, where the spokespersons of all parties which are not represented in the national parliament (19 parties in 2005) debate for ~ 2 hours live on TV
Historian Darcy Richardson says there was no debate in 1936 between Lemke and Norman Thomas. Darcy says there was a joint press conference, sponsored by the NY Herald Tribune, at which each minor party presidential candidate, and also a representative for both Roosevelt and Landon, made a statement. But it wasn’t a debate.
We seem to be looking at this from whats good for the candidates instead of what is good for the republic . Debates are always good as long as they are open debates. We the people need to demand participation and inclusion.
Oh come on Larry, structured kabuki theater!
Just for informational purposes, here is an overview of the Dewey-Stassen debate: http://www.ourcampaigns.com/EventDetail.html?EventID=41