SIMI VALLEY–The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation announced today that May 2, 2011 is the date for the Republican presidential candidates’ debate being held at the Reagan Library. The Reagan Foundation also announced a host of details about the first Republican debate of the 2012 campaign season, including a roster of some of the nation’s top journalists from NBC News, POLITICO and Telemundo to take part in the questioning.
“We have established a wonderful tradition – of which I know Ronnie would be so proud – of using the Library as a first-in-the-nation forum for candidates to introduce themselves and their visions for America to a national audience,” former First Lady Nancy Reagan said.
The Reagan Library, in Simi Valley, California, was also the venue for the first Republican debate of the 2008 campaign cycle. Mrs. Reagan and the Presidential Foundation announced last fall the plan to host the candidates as the 2012 campaign season begins.
In addition to the date of this year’s gathering — selected by the Presidential Foundation after consultation with national Republicans — there are several important features of the Library Debate announced by Mrs. Reagan today:
*Brian Williams, anchor of the top-rated NBC Nightly News, will be co-moderator, along with POLITICO Editor-in-Chief John F. Harris, a presidential scholar and one of the nation’s top political journalists. A Telemundo reporter will also join in the questioning.
NBC News and POLITICO will be joined by Telemundo and CNBC in airing the debate. This will mark the first time a news organization aimed at Hispanic Americans and the nation’s leading business news network will join in the inaugural debate of a presidential campaign season.
The debate will air on MSNBC, POLITICO.com, CNBC and Telemundo.
The Reagan Presidential Foundation plans to play host to both the first GOP presidential debate of the 2012 election cycle on May 2, 2011 and a second GOP debate on the eve of the Super Tuesday primaries.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Ronald Reagan’s legacy of inspired freedom and his timeless principles of individual liberty, economic opportunity, global democracy, and national pride. It sustains the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, the Reagan Center for Public Affairs, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Presidential Learning Center and The Air Force One Pavilion. Located in Simi Valley, California the Library houses 63 million pages of Gubernatorial, Presidential and personal papers and over 60,000 gifts and artifacts chronicling the lives of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. It now also serves as the final resting place of America’s 40th President. www.reaganfoundation.org
