it is very It's been an eventful month since the first presidential debate between current President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in June.
In July, Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the Democratic National Convention in August. Americans also took notice when Trump won the delegate vote at the Republican National Convention and selected Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as the Republican vice presidential candidate.
So will there be a Trump-Harris debate? It's still unclear. Here's what the next presidential debate will look like and when it may take place.
When is the next presidential debate?
The Trump-Biden debate was scheduled to air on ABC on September 10, but social media posts from Trump on Truth Social suggest he may not be keen to debate any other Democratic candidates.
“Now that Joe has, rightly, dropped out of the race, I think whoever the Radical Left Democrats choose should have the debate on Fox News, not biased ABC.”
In an interview with CBS News, Trump gave a somewhat vague answer to the debate question: “I don't know who I'd be debating. I haven't decided right now who's going to be on that side. But I'd love to debate whoever it is. Absolutely.”
Is Kamala Harris the official Democratic presidential candidate?
Not yet: Kamala Harris still needs to be nominated as the official candidate at the Democratic National Convention, where party delegates from across the country and its territories will vote on who will be the party's official nominee for the 2024 presidential election.
Biden won 3,896 delegate votes from across the nation. Those delegates would vote for someone other than Biden to represent the party, even if Biden had won state primaries earlier this year.
If Joe Biden won the primary, why aren't delegates voting for him at the Democratic National Convention?
A section of the DNC rules known as the “conscience” clause (Rule 13(J)) allows delegates to choose not to vote for the candidate who wins their state's primary. It reads as follows:
“The delegates elected to the national convention, who have pledged allegiance to the presidential candidate, shall follow their consciences and reflect the sentiments of the people who elected them.”
First adopted in the 1980s, the “conscience” clause was added to allow delegates to the Democratic National Convention to vote for anyone they felt represented their beliefs in good conscience, even if that person had not won their state's primary.
What is Kamala Harris' connection to Florida?
The current vice president has no direct ties to Florida but has campaigned there for years and recently visited the state to denounce the policies of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
She has visited Jacksonville three times for events highlighting the massive pandemic relief bill, spoke out against Black history education in Florida and denounced strict restrictions on abortion access in the state.
During her most recent visit in May, Harris spoke out against Florida's six-week abortion ban hours after it went into effect, linking the bans in Florida and other states to former President Donald Trump.
“A second term of Trump will mean more bans, more suffering and less freedom,” Harris said in a campaign speech at the Prime Osborn Convention Center on May 1. “But we won't let that happen.”
Following Harris' announcement, DeSantis released a statement about X, saying Harris was “part of a massive cover-up to hide and deny that Joe Biden is unable to do his job.”
What is Harris' approval rating?
According to the polling and analysis website FiveThirtyEight, as of Monday, July 22, Harris' average approval rating was 38.6% and her disapproval rating was 50.4%.
What will the vice presidential debate look like? A look at Harris' potential running mate
Before Biden dropped out of the race, the Trump campaign had publicly refused to set a date for the vice presidential debate, USA Today reported, saying they were unable to commit to a date due to uncertainty about which candidates would appear.
President Trump has selected 39-year-old JD (James David) Vance as his candidate for the Republican Party's vice presidential nomination. Vance served as a Marine public affairs officer in Iraq before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022. He is also the author of the 2016 best-selling autobiography “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was made into a film in 2020 starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close.
What about Harris? Some of the names reportedly under consideration include:
When is the DNC?
The Democratic National Convention will begin in Chicago on Monday, August 19th and conclude on Thursday, August 22nd.
