Sadly, political debates seem to have become more of a foreign concept in today’s hyper-partisan era. In 2022, Arizona elected a governor, Democrat Katie Hobbs, even after she refused to debate Republican opponent Kari Lake. Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman was elected as a U.S. senator despite ducking debate offers from local news organizations until just a few days before the election.
In this presidential-election cycle, Donald Trump so far has skipped the Republican primary debates, citing his commanding lead months before even one vote has been cast as the reason — but, at the same time, arguably missing an opportunity to reintroduce himself to the country with a large audience tuning in. He also dropped out of his second, final debate with Joe Biden in 2020 when a COVID-provoked format — remote rather than in-person — became an issue.
So it was utterly refreshing this past week to see a nationally televised debate on Fox News between the governors of the Golden and Sunshine states — the two most contrasting U.S. states, and two politicians who couldn’t be more polar opposites.
For some political junkies and good-government advocates, there might be the hope that this matchup will prompt more such debates, giving voters a singular opportunity to evaluate candidates. For the rest of America, it perhaps came down to deciding whether you prefer a nation that more closely resembles California or Florida.
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