Late last week, California governor Gavin Newsom challenged Florida governor Ron DeSantis to a debate. “Since you have only one overriding need — attention –let’s take this up & debate,” Newsom tweeted, in part.
Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal editorial board published an editorial calling on the governors to debate, saying that such an event would be “instructive.”
Luckily for Newsom and DeSantis, they already have an outstanding invitation to do just that, at the University of Notre Dame. In late July, the university’s Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government sent an invitation to the offices of both Newsom and DeSantis, asking them to participate in a Lincoln–Douglas debate on Notre Dame’s campus sometime this year.
The proposed debate would consist of two parts, including a Lincoln–Douglas-style component allowing one governor to speak for 15 minutes, the other to respond for 20, and the first to respond for five. The second part of the debate would allow each governor to pose three questions to the other, giving the respondent three minutes for each reply.
The proposed theme for the event is “America’s Principles and America’s Future,” and the CCCG’s director Vincent Phillip Muñoz told the governors he’d like them to to address three key questions:
- What is your understanding of America’s core philosophical and constitutional
principles? - How are those principles threatened today?
- How do you believe those principles can be best secured in the immediate future?
According to the CCCG, DeSantis’s office acknowledged receipt of the invitation but has not yet decided one way or another. Newsom’s office has yet to acknowledge receipt. If the California governor is serious about wanting a debate, he’s already been offered the ideal opportunity. Both he and DeSantis should accept.