The Republican National Committee will not be hosting any more 2024 presidential debates, the organization announced Friday.
The RNC hosted four debates since August — the most recent on Wednesday at the University of Alabama — but will now allow other groups to organize future debates. At present, ABC and CNN have plans to host debates in New Hampshire and Iowa, prior to those state’s caucuses or primary elections in January.
“We have held four successful debates across the country with the most conservative partners in the history of a Republican primary. We have no RNC debates scheduled in January and any debates currently scheduled are not affiliated with the RNC,” the organization’s Committee on Presidential Debates said in a statement, first reported by Politico. “It is now time for Republican primary voters to decide who will be our next president and candidates are free to use any forum or format to communicate to voters as they see fit.”
Until now, the RNC has maintained control over how and when Republican presidential candidates could participate in debates. At each of the four televised debates, the Republican National Committee demanded that candidates meet certain fundraising and polling thresholds to make the stage, in addition to signing a loyalty pledge — vowing to back the eventual Republican nominee for president.
When candidates attempted to participate in other forums or debates, the committee often squashed their efforts. In early October, Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie attempted to appear jointly on Bret Baier’s Fox News show, but the RNC threatened to bar them from future RNC-organized debates if they participated. Ramaswamy and Christie appeared separately on the show.
A month later, the RNC warned candidates that participation in an Iowa evangelical group’s “Thanksgiving Family Forum” — a panel event at a hotel — would similarly lead to disqualification. The RNC eventually relented, though, and three candidates — Ramaswamy, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley — participated.
On Thursday night, CNN announced it would be hosting two debates, independent of the RNC: on Jan. 10 in Des Moines, Iowa, and on Jan. 21 in Goffstown, New Hampshire. DeSantis already pledged to participate in the Iowa debate.
ABC announced Thursday it would also be hosting a debate at St. Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire, on Jan. 18.
The stage has slowly shrunk at each of the four GOP primary debates. At the first debate in August, eight candidates participated. At the second, one month later, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson failed to qualify, while seven others did.
At the third debate in October, the stage shrunk to five candidates — DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy, Tim Scott and Chris Christie. Scott dropped out of the race in mid-November; at Wednesday’s debate, four candidates participated.
Donald Trump, the race’s current front-runner, has yet to attend a debate.