Open Debates is a nonpartisan organization committed to ensuring that the presidential debates best serve the public interest. Since 2003, Open Debates has exposed how political parties manipulate the presidential debates to the detriment of voter education, and has worked to prevent political parties from weakening debate formats, excluding popular candidates and limiting the number of debates.For better or worse (okay, definitely worse), presidential campaigns capture the energy and attention of voters and leave us feeling powerless to fix a completely broken political system. Candidates that aim to fix the system — think John Anderson, Ross Perot, Ron Paul, Ralph Nader, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein — get shut out of the main conversation.
There have been countless efforts to hold the self-proclaimed Commission on Presidential Debates accountable to produce fair and inclusive debates. But it is a private corporation created by the Democratic and Republican parties, and it has the political establishment's blessing to maintain a duopoly on presidential debate participation. The courts, so far, have obliged.
If we are ever going to succeed at opening up the presidential debates to more voices and better choices, we need to do two big things that will take the decision-making out of the hands of some untouchable front-group for the two parties:First, we need to organize the 46 percent of Americans who consider themselves political independents, the 68 percent of Americans who think we need at least a third major party and the 76 percent of voters who want open debates.
Second, we need to create a national organization that can build a grassroots, cross-partisan movement to effectively challenge exclusionary debates everywhere they occur.
Protest signs and resource information posters were hung up around a resource tent in Broadview, Illinois. Credit: Britton Struthers-Lugo, Oct. 30, 2025.
Rubber bullet wounds on Bryan’s back, after a day of protesting at the Broadview ICE facility in mid-September. He wears hospital scrubs, acquired after receiving medical attention following the pepper-spray incident earlier in the day. He returned to protest after being discharged from the hospital.Credit: Adriano Kalin (@adriano_kalin).
ICE officers gathered outside the Broadview detention center. Yellow identifying badges can be seen on the front of their uniforms and on their shoulders. Credit: Britton Struthers-Lugo, Oct. 30, 2025.
Screengrab from the Chicago Council of Lawyers. Designed by 
A white bus waits outside the Broadview Detention Center to transport detainees to a permanent detention center or to an airport. The Broadview Detention Center cannot hold detainees for longer than 12 hours, though to reflect increased enforcement operations this has been increased to 72 hours. Longer stays have been recorded since Operation Midway Blitz. Credit: By Britton Struthers-Lugo, Oct. 30, 2025.
A paper outlining resources and ways to report federal law enforcement activity around Chicago hangs on a gate in the protestor “free speech zone”.Credit: Britton Struthers-Lugo. Oct. 30, 2025.
