2016 Presidential Debate Schedule: Republican Party rolls out dates – POLITICO

CORONADO, Calif. — The Republican National Committee announced Friday that it will sanction at least nine presidential primary debates, starting this August in Ohio and continuing through March 2016, with the potential to add three more.

One of the most interesting nuggets of the schedule is that no state gets more than one sanctioned debate. Last time, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida each hosted four debates. Iowa hosted three.

Here are the nine debates that have been sanctioned, with the caveat that negotiations to finalize the details are ongoing:

1. Fox News, August 2015, Ohio

2. CNN, September 16, 2015, California, at the Ronald Reagan presidential library

3. CNBC, October 2015, Colorado

4. Fox Business, November 2015, Wisconsin

5. CNN, December 2015, Nevada

6. Fox News, January 2016, Iowa

7. ABC News, February 2016, New Hampshire

8. CBS News, February 2016, South Carolina

9. NBC/Telemundo, February 2016, Florida

Three more are pending:

10. Fox News, March 2016, location TBD

11. CNN, March 2016, location TBD

12. Conservative Media Debate, date TBD, locations TBD

Party officials have involved the consultants and strategists for all the major potential candidates to help get buy-in. Those who have been party to such discussions say not everyone got everything they wanted, but the candidates got most of what they wanted.

“This is the first step in the process,” said RNC communications director Sean Spicer. “I’m very excited about how far the RNC has come in this process. We have a ways to go, but we especially look forward to naming the additional conservative media partners and panelists.”