On May 21, 1956, in Miami, Florida,[1] Former Illinois Governor Adlai E. Stevenson and Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee debated on the ABC Television network.
On May 5 of that year, just prior to the 1960 West Virginia primary, Senators John F. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and Hubert Humphrey (D-Minnesota) debated in Charleston.
Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy engaged in a television debate on ABC's Issues and Answers a few days before the California primary; it was generally considered a draw.
The five candidates on the ballot, Democratic front-runner Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine faced long-shots Senators George McGovern of South Dakota and Vance Hartke of Indiana; Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty; and Edward T. Coll, a 32-year-old social worker, who waved a rubber rat to symbolize the problem of urban decay.
There was also a multicandidate debate with five candidates participating -- Shirley Chisholm, Humphrey, McGovern, Yorty, and Taylor Hardin (Alabama's director of finance, substituting for a wounded George Wallace).
The first debate took place in Boston on February 23, with Birch Bayh, Jimmy Carter, Fred Harris, Henry M. Jackson, Milton Shapp, Sargent Shriver, and Mo Udall[5] participating.
A series of debates began on January 15 in New Hampshire, with Reubin Askew, Alan Cranston, John Glenn, Gary Hart, Fritz Hollings, Jesse Jackson, George McGovern and Walter F. Mondale on the panel.
At a roundtable debate between the three remaining Democratic candidates moderated by Phil Donahue, Mondale and Hart got in such a heated argument over the issue of U.S. policy in Central America that Jesse Jackson had to tap his water glass on the table to get them to simmer down.
This had Bruce Babbitt, Joe Biden, Mike Dukakis, Dick Gephardt, Al Gore, Jesse Jackson and Paul Simon on stage.
It took place on the 15th with Jerry Brown, Bill Clinton, Tom Harkin, Bob Kerrey, Paul Tsongas and Douglas Wilder on the platform.
Moderated by CNN correspondent Ken Bode and co-hosted by South Dakota Public Broadcasting, candidates Brown, Clinton, Tsongas, Agran, Harkin and Kerrey debated the economy, agriculture, healthcare, the environment and Native American issues.
Later on, during the final debate in Buffalo, New York on March 21, perennial candidate Eugene McCarthy would be allowed to participate along with Clinton, Agran and Brown.
[7] The last of nine Democratic presidential debates was held on March 1, 2000, between Vice President Al Gore and New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley at the Harry Chandler Auditorium in Los Angeles.
Eight Democrats (Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson) were invited to participate.