Important state, no debate: Michigan not picked to host for first cycle in decades

Michigan, once again, factors to be a crucial state to national politics this fall, as it's considered one of a handful of election battlegrounds that will decide the balance of the 2024 presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

But even as the state's profile grows nationally, a small but noteworthy trend in presidential elections is set to be broken — as things stand, there won't be a presidential debate in Michigan for the current presidential cycle.

Barring a last-minute change of plans, this would be the first presidential cycle since 2004 when Michigan didn't host a presidential debate for either the general election or the presidential primaries, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

The second debate of the general election cycle (the first between Harris and Trump) took place Tuesday in Philadelphia. Like Michigan, Pennsylvania is a swing state where either candidate winning could determine who ends up winning the White House.

But Tuesday may have been the lone debate between the presidential candidates — While the Harris campaign quickly began calling for another debate almost immediately after the first one ended, Trump has said he won't debate Harris again.

And even if Trump reverses course and agrees to a third debate of the cycle, CBS News has offered to host the debate on Arizona State University's campus, thousands of miles away from voters in Michigan.

So, it stands likely Michigan's run of hosting a presidential debate will come to an end. Here's a look at the recent history of presidential debates held in the Mitten State:

In 2020 primaries, Dems went after Biden in Detroit

The early field for the 2020 Democratic presidential primary was so crowded that candidates had to participate in two separate debates over two nights in late July 2019 at the historic Fox Theatre in Detroit.

While Biden's 2020 run had its ups and downs before he clinched the Democratic nomination on his way to the White House, he was viewed as the frontrunner in the race when nearly two dozen candidates debated in Detroit. And on July 31, 2019, he was the main target for the nine other candidates on stage, including Harris.

"But as the debate wore on, Biden found himself fending off numerous attacks from both Harris and others in this second night of debates in Detroit, with challengers questioning decisions on the Iraq War, support for a 1994 crime bill and many other statements and positions in a political career dating back to the 1970s," the Detroit Free Press wrote in its coverage of the debate.

Despite the challenges to Biden in Detroit and in subsequent debates, he eventually emerged as the Democratic nominee.

There were no Republican debates that year, due to a lack of challengers to Trump, the incumbent. At one point, a debate was slated to take place between Biden and Trump in Oct. 2020 on the University of Michigan's campus, but the university withdrew from hosting due to concerns with the coronavirus pandemic, which was ongoing at the time.

Republicans, Democrats both debate in Michigan during 2016 primary

Just three days apart, both Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls ventured to Michigan for debates during the 2016 primary cycle in Detroit and Flint, respectively.

First, on March 3 of that year, Trump faced barbs from other Republican candidates at the Fox Theatre, the Free Press reported at the time. When Trump first launched his candidacy for president, many Republicans viewed him as a party outsider, a far cry from his stature within Republican politics today. By the time Republicans held their Detroit debate, Trump had a clear, but not insurmountable advantage in the delegate count.

He would emerge victorious from the Republican primary, and eventually win Michigan on his way to the White House in 2016.

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Then on March 6, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders sparred in Flint. The debate came less than two years after the onset of the Flint Water Crisis, which was a prevalent issue raised during the night.

Both Sanders and Clinton called for former Gov. Rick Snyder to resign due to the water crisis during the debate. Clinton, who went on to lose the Michigan primary, win the nomination nationally and then lose to Trump that fall, criticized Sanders for a 2009 vote during the federal government's rescue of the automotive industry.

"The first 22 minutes of the debate were consumed with the crisis in Flint, with both candidates – hoping to score a victory in Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Michigan – attempting to one-up the other in terms of concern," the Free Press wrote in coverage of the evening.

Rick Perry's 'Oops' moment in Rochester ahead of 2012 primary

Eight Republican presidential hopefuls debated on Oakland University's campus on Nov. 9, 2011, a little less than a year before the 2012 presidential election that would ultimately pit former President Barack Obama against Republican nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

While Romney, a Michigan native, participated in the Rochester debate, perhaps the most memorable moment of the night involved a different former governor.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose campaign had already been hurt by poor performances in prior debates, forgot the name of the third federal agency he'd eliminate if he were to be elected. He named the departments of Commerce and Education, before taking several moments to recall the name of the third. He eventually recalled the Environmental Protection Agency, according to an ABC News report, but later retracted and said the Department of Energy was the third agency.

“The third agency of government I would do away with - the education, the uh, the commerce and let’s see. I can’t. The third one. I can’t. Sorry. Oops," Perry said.

Perry, at least, was able to joke about the gaff. The Free Press reported at the time he told reporters following the debate "I'm glad I had boots on because I sure stepped on it out there."

The last cycle Michigan didn't host a presidential debate in was 2004

The lone debate of the 2008 presidential election cycle to take place in Michigan was a Republican primary debate in Oct. 2007, when nine candidates, including the late John McCain, a U.S. Senator from Arizona, participated in a debate on the University of Michigan's Dearborn campus. McCain was the eventual Republican nominee.

It's been twenty years since neither party held a presidential debate in Michigan, as neither Democrats nor Republicans held a debate in Michigan during the 2004 primary election. The presidential debates ahead of the general election that year were in Arizona, Florida and Missouri.

The American Presidency Project tracks presidential debates dating back to 1960, when John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon participated in the first televised presidential debate between candidates. According to the project, the earliest presidential debate held in Michigan was during the 1992 election cycle, when then-President George H.W. Bush, then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and independent candidate Ross Perot met for a debate on Michigan State University's campus.

Contact Arpan Lobo: [email protected]

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan has hosted notable debates, even if it won't in 2024