Virginia State University not in talks to host national debate after nixed plans for presidential debate

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Virginia State University isn’t involved in discussions to host a presidential or vice presidential debate after plans for it to be the first historically Black college or university to host a presidential debate were officially scrapped , per a spokesperson.

VSU was floated as a potential host site for a vice presidential debate by former President Donald Trump after President Joe Biden’s campaign said he wouldn’t take part in ones set by a commission that picked VSU to be the first HBCU to hold a presidential debate .

“To my knowledge, the University is not in talks with anyone at this time regarding a national debate,” Gwen Williams Dandridge, VSU’s assistant vice president for communications, wrote in an email Monday.

The statement from VSU comes after the commission that picked the university to host the second presidential debate in October – the Commission on Presidential Debates – announced on June 24 that VSU and the other three campuses selected to host debates were “ released from their contracts .”

Virginia State University, founded in 1882 and located in Ettrick , created a website dedicated to the scheduled debate at the VSU Multipurpose Center – which is still active.

Biden’s campaign sent a letter to the commission on May 15 informing it the president wouldn’t be participating in the debates announced by the commission, citing reasons such as the debates being set for after early votes have been cast – similar complaints Trump’s campaign have made.

The letter added that the commission’s “model of building huge spectacles with large audiences at great expense” isn’t needed or conducive to holding “good debates” and that it was “unable or unwilling to enforce” rules for candidates in the 2020 debates.

The commission’s co-chairs, Antonia Hernández and Frank Fahrenkopf, said in a statement that “it is unfair to ask the four campuses to continue to prepare for their debates, as they have been doing since their November, 2023 selection. We are grateful to the sites, and we are sorry to come to this decision. We are dismayed that students of the four campuses will not have the opportunity to participate in these historic voter education forums.”

Democrats and Republicans in Virginia were critical of the move, urging the presumptive candidates to move forward with a debate at VSU.

Trump took to social media to call on Biden to debate on Fox News at VSU or another Virginia venue, but Biden’s campaign reportedly rejected two additional debates that Trump’s campaign said it had agreed to, per NBC News .

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