--- title: Vice-Presidential Debate: What Happened at the First One description: Republican Bob Dole and Democrat Walter Mondale met on Oct. 15, 1976, for the first-ever vice-presidential debate canonical: https://time.com/4511710/vice-presidential-debate-history/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-04T12:30:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:53:22.836Z article:section: History og:title: Here's What Happened at the First-Ever VP Debate og:description: Republican Bob Dole and Democrat Walter Mondale met on Oct. 15, 1976. og:url: https://time.com/4511710/vice-presidential-debate-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt777bb206147b4767/6988a7ed5f570fac01b22b26/vp-debate.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Walter Mondale, Fritz Mondale, Robert Dole, Bob Dole og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What Happened at the First-Ever VP Debate twitter:description: Republican Bob Dole and Democrat Walter Mondale met on Oct. 15, 1976. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt777bb206147b4767/6988a7ed5f570fac01b22b26/vp-debate.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The First-Ever Vice-Presidential Debate Was 40 Years Ago. Here's What Happened.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Oct 4, 2016 12:30 PM UTC  Senator Walter Mondale, D-Minn., left, speaks as Senator Robert Dole, R-Kan., listens during the Vice Presidential debate in Houston, Oct. 15, 1976. Senator Walter Mondale, D-Minn., left, speaks as Senator Robert Dole, R-Kan., listens during the Vice Presidential debate in Houston, Oct. 15, 1976.AP Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Oct 4, 2016 12:30 PM UTC As 2016 vice-presidential candidates Tim Kaine and Mike Pence take to the debate stage on Tuesday night, their match-up will mark roughly 40 years since Oct. 15, 1976, when Republican Bob Dole and Democrat Walter Mondale met in what moderator James Hoge [called](http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=62249) “as far as we can tell … the first formal debate ever held between vice-presidential candidates.” A couple of factors had combined in 1976 to make a VP debate seem like a natural next step for the election process. For one thing, as Hoge pointed out to viewers at home, the preceding years had drawn attention to the importance of the vice president’s job, as Nixon’s resignation and Kennedy’s assassination had catapulted new leaders into office. For another, Republican incumbent Gerald Ford had made a particular point of emphasizing debates as part of the election process. Though televised presidential debates had disappeared in the wake of the famous [1960 Kennedy-Nixon debate](http://time.com/4499942/presidential-debate-timing-1960-2016/), he [decided](http://time.com/4499958/gerald-ford-debate-history/) to bring them back, issuing a public challenge to the Democratic nominee. “This year the issues are on our side, and I’m ready and eager to go before the American people and debate the issues face to face with Jimmy Carter,” he [said](http://time.com/vault/issue/1976-08-30/page/10/) in the course of accepting the nomination. It was not particularly surprising that, with all the attention to the idea, the VP nominees [decided](http://time.com/vault/issue/1976-08-30/page/19/) to get in on the action. [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) And, as TIME [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1976-10-25/page/39/) following the debate, their decision to participate shed light on how a vice president could be a key part of a White House campaign, not just a back-up: --- > “” --- The [2016 VP debate ](http://www.debates.org/index.php?page=2016debates)will be held Tuesday evening in Farmville, Va. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4511710/vice-presidential-debate-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4511710/vice-presidential-debate-history/"},"headline":"The First-Ever Vice-Presidential Debate Was 40 Years Ago. 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