News and analysis

All but two of the Republicans running for governor met in their first debate in Livingston County on Thursday evening.

A review that criticised the format of Channel Nine’s leaders’ debate was spiked by Tory Maguire, the executive editor of Nine Entertainment’s newspapers the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age.

Republicans running for Michigan governor met in their first debate Thursday night, all staunchly opposing abortion before the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling is potentially overturned while disagreeing on exceptions and whether former President Donald Trump won the state’s 2020 election.

Utah Republican Party Chair Carson Jorgensen says they’re at loggerheads with the Utah Debate Commission, so they’re planning to sponsor their own primary debates for Republican candidates for U.S. Senate and Congress.

There were only two candidates facing the cameras at the St. Catharines provincial riding debate hosted by local YourTV Thursday.

Organizing a decent minimum number of election debates ought to be seen less as a journalistic or philanthropic exercise (though it is always open to private groups to sponsor more) and more as a basic function of the state, like putting out polling booths or counting the votes.

RMIT ABC Fact Check has rounded up some of the key claims where the leaders got their facts straight, and where they missed the mark.

Of the three leaders' debates in this campaign, Anthony Albanese performed best in Wednesday night's less shouty, more civilised encounter.

However much anyone enjoys or feels squeamish about intra-party conflict, it's still the substance of the fight that matters more than the spectacle.

A GOP Senate challenger says the Utah Republican Party asking candidates to hold off on committing to Utah Debate Commission debates next month might be a ploy to shield incumbent Sen. Mike Lee from the stage.

Seven News political editor Mark Riley says he’ll use “a chair and a whip” to control Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese in the third and final leaders’ debate and avoid a repeat of Sunday night’s “spectacle”.