Ghosts of the G.O.P.’s First Nationally Broadcast Debate

The first-ever national broadcast of a Republican Presidential debate (of any such debate, in fact) was held on May 17, 1948, in a Portland, Oregon radio studio. It was watched by about fifty reporters, carried on hundreds of stations, and heard by a nationwide audience estimated at forty million. It was a transformative moment, the forerunner of the Kennedy–Nixon debates in 1960; its immediate effect was to influence the outcome of the Oregon primary—the final contest before Republicans met in Philadelphia, in late June, to choose a nominee.