Questions to Ask Presidential Candidates
Questions to ask presidential candidates at a town hall, a campus forum or a rope line, or to hold their answers against while you watch a debate. They are written for a United States election and grouped by what you want to find out: priorities, the money, the main issues from health care to foreign policy, who the candidate would appoint, the limits of the office, and the candidate's own record and character. Each has a note on what a real answer sounds like. For another country, swap Congress and the Supreme Court for your own legislature and courts, and check what a president there can do alone.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Priorities
Why are you running for president, and why now?
Why ask it
It sounds like the easy one, and candidates with a binder full of policy have still fumbled it. A real answer names something they want to do with the office. A weak one is a biography, or a description of the opponent.
What would you do in your first 100 days in office?
Why ask it
The hundred-day mark is a habit of the press, not a deadline in law, but campaigns plan around it. Sort the answer into two piles: what a president can sign alone on day one, and what needs Congress to pass a bill inside three months. A list that is all second pile is a list of hopes.
What is the biggest problem facing the country, and what would you do about it?
Why ask it
Their pick tells you where four years of attention would go, since a president can only push a few things at once. Listen for whether what follows is a plan with a first step or a longer description of how bad the problem is.
If you could get only one of your proposals through Congress, which would it be?
Why ask it
A platform lists everything, and this makes them rank it. Compare the answer with what the campaign's ads lead with. When the two differ, ask which one is the real first priority.
How would we know in four years whether you had succeeded?
Why ask it
You are asking for the yardstick they agree to be measured by. A figure that can be looked up in four years, such as wages, the uninsured rate or the number of troops abroad, is an answer. 'Restoring' or 'rebuilding' something is not, because nobody can check it.
On policy, not personality, what is the biggest difference between you and your opponent?
Why ask it
Put this way, it closes off the easy reply about the other candidate's flaws. Notice whether they can state the opponent's position in words the opponent would accept before disagreeing with it. In a primary, where the platforms sit close together, the answer shows what they think the contest is about.
What should the federal government do, and what should it stay out of?
Why ask it
This is the philosophy question, and it predicts how they would treat the issues nobody raises tonight. Ask for one example on each side. A candidate with nothing in the 'stay out' column, or nothing in the 'do' column, has told you how every new problem would be handled.
What would you do for a place like this one, rather than for the country in general?
Why ask it
National answers are prepared; local ones are not. A candidate who has been briefed on the area will name an industry, a facility or a program, and one who has not will return to the stump speech.
What would your presidency change for someone who is eighteen today?
Why ask it
Written for a school or campus forum, and worth asking anywhere, because it pushes the answer past the next election. The costs that land decades out, such as debt, climate and the retirement programs, are the easy ones to leave for a later president. A line about student loans aimed at the room is a smaller answer than the question asked for.
Whose interests would you have to disappoint to do what you are promising?
Why ask it
Campaigns describe who gains from a policy and leave out who loses, and nearly every large change has both. Naming the losing side, whether an industry, a region or a group of taxpayers, takes both a grasp of the detail and a willingness to be straight with you.
Which of your promises are you least confident you can keep?
Why ask it
No campaign volunteers this, so even a partial answer is worth having. Often it is the promise that depends on a Senate majority they may not get. Write down the one they name and watch whether it is still in the speeches a few months later.
Money
How would you pay for what you are promising?
Why ask it
Ask for the mechanism, not the intention: which taxes, which borrowing, which existing spending. A reply that rests entirely on faster growth or on cutting waste names nobody who pays, so the follow-up is what happens if the growth does not arrive.
What would your plan cost a household like mine in the first two years?
Why ask it
National totals are easy to state and hard to feel. Give them a household to work with, such as two earners with children or a retiree on a fixed income, and ask for a rough dollar figure. Someone who knows their own plan can say who pays more, who pays less and when it starts.
What would you cut?
Why ask it
A platform that only adds spending has to tax, borrow or cut somewhere. Ask for one program by name and a rough amount. 'Waste, fraud and abuse' is not a program.
What would you do about the price of groceries, rent and gas, and how much of that can a president control?
Why ask it
Prices are where a president has less direct grip than campaigns suggest: interest rates belong to the Federal Reserve and most spending to Congress. A candidate who admits the limits and still names two levers is giving you more than one who promises lower prices by a date.
What would you do about jobs and wages for people without a college degree?
Why ask it
Be wary of a promised number of jobs, since hiring depends on a great deal that no president controls. The tools within reach are narrower: trade rules, federal contracts, training money, and a federal minimum wage that only Congress can raise. Ask which of those they would start with.
Whose taxes would go up under your plan, and whose would go down?
Why ask it
Hold out for income levels in dollars, because 'the wealthy' and 'the middle class' mean whatever the room wants them to mean. Tax law is written by Congress, so a useful follow-up is what they would sign if the bill came back different from the plan.
Would the national debt be higher or lower at the end of your term, and why?
Why ask it
Opening with a choice of two makes a dodge easy to spot. Check whether they are talking about the debt itself or the yearly deficit, since a smaller deficit still adds to the debt.
What would you change about Social Security and Medicare, and what would you leave alone?
Why ask it
Promising to protect both is the standard line, and it skips how the programs get paid for as the population ages. The main levers are the payroll tax, the benefit formula and the eligibility age, so the follow-up is which of those they would touch.
Issues
What would you change about health care, and what happens to the coverage people have now?
Why ask it
People judge a health plan by what it does to their own insurance, which is why the question ends where it does. A full answer covers who gains coverage, who has to switch, and what it does to premiums or taxes.
What would you do about immigration, both at the border and for people who have lived here for years?
Why ask it
Candidates tend to arrive with a detailed answer for one half and a vague one for the other, and which is which tells you the priority. Enforcement is largely a president's to direct, but a lasting change to who can come or stay takes Congress.
What is your energy and climate policy, and what would it do to what people pay for power and fuel?
Why ask it
Energy answers tend to come as either a jobs pitch or an environmental one, and the bill at the pump or the meter is where the two meet. Separate what would change within the term from targets set for decades after they have left office.
What should Washington do about schools and the cost of college, and what should stay with the states?
Why ask it
Most school money and most school decisions are state and local, so a president's reach here is narrower than a stump speech makes it sound. Federal grants and student loans are the real levers. If the answer is about curriculum or teacher pay, ask how a president would get at either.
What, if anything, would you change about gun laws, and what would you expect the change to do?
Why ask it
Whichever way the candidate leans, this asks for a result that could be checked later, which a statement of values cannot be. Promises in this area usually need Congress, so it is fair to ask how many votes they think they have.
Should abortion law be set nationally or left to the states, and what would you sign or veto?
Why ask it
Putting it as sign or veto gets past a statement of personal belief to what the office would do. Appointments to the courts and to federal agencies matter here too, so raise those if the answer stops at Congress.
What should a president do about crime, when most policing is run by cities and states?
Why ask it
Most crimes are charged under state law by local prosecutors, and police departments answer to cities and counties. A president's share is the federal agencies, grants to local forces and the choice of who runs the Justice Department. A promise to make your street safer should come with which of those it runs through.
What rules, if any, would you put on artificial intelligence and the largest technology companies?
Why ask it
Neither party has a long-settled line on this, so answers are less rehearsed than on older issues. The test is whether they can describe a specific harm they want to prevent, or only say the subject is important.
Under what circumstances would you send American troops somewhere?
Why ask it
Congress has the power to declare war, but presidents have sent forces abroad many times without a declaration, so the candidate's own threshold counts for a lot. Ask for the conditions and not the countries: what has to be at stake, and whether they would go to Congress first.
Which alliances would you strengthen, and which commitments would you rethink?
Why ask it
Allies and rivals both read campaign answers, so some vagueness here is deliberate. Asking what they would expect from an ally in return is easier for a candidate to answer than a list of countries, and it tells you nearly as much.
Which country do you see as the greatest threat to the United States, and how would you handle it?
Why ask it
The choice shows what their foreign policy would be organized around. A serious answer covers what they would do short of force, such as trade measures, sanctions and diplomacy, and does not stop at sounding tough.
Where do you stand on tariffs, and who ends up paying them?
Why ask it
Congress has handed presidents a good deal of room on trade, though how far that room goes has been argued in court, so a tariff promise is closer to one they could keep alone. The cost can land on the foreign exporter, the importer or the shopper, and a candidate should be able to say which they expect.
People
Who advises you on the economy, and who on national security?
Why ask it
The people named here are the likeliest to end up running the Treasury, the Pentagon and the State Department, and you can look up what each has written and done. With no names, you are being asked to judge the candidate without the team that would do much of the deciding.
What do you want in a vice president, and what would you hand them to run?
Why ask it
The Constitution gives a vice president little to do beyond presiding over the Senate and being ready to step in, so the job is whatever the president makes it. A named portfolio means the choice is about governing. A list of the person's virtues means it is about the ticket.
Who from the other party would you put in your cabinet?
Why ask it
Hold out for a name, because 'I will govern for everyone' cannot be checked and a name can. If they will not give one, ask which cabinet post they would be willing to fill that way.
What would cause you to remove someone you had appointed?
Why ask it
'I hire good people' does not say what happens when one of them turns out not to be. Ask where the line is: an indictment, a finding by an inspector general, lying to Congress, or plain bad results. The answer shows how loyalty and accountability rank when they collide.
Tell me about a time your advisers were split. How did you decide?
Why ask it
You are trying to learn whether disagreement reaches the candidate at all, or whether staff settle it first and bring in a single recommendation. A story with a named issue and a side they overruled is worth more than a description of their open door.
How would you handle a crisis that is nowhere in your platform?
Why ask it
Every president gets at least one event nobody campaigned on: a storm, an attack, a bank failure. The answer cannot be a policy, so judge the process: who is in the room, how they decide on incomplete information, and what they would tell the public on the first day.
Power
What can you do without Congress, and what needs legislation?
Why ask it
Executive action can be undone by the next administration or struck down in court, while statute is durable and much harder to obtain. When the two are blurred together, some of what you are hearing is a promise the president cannot deliver alone, so ask of each item whether it needs a vote.
How would you work with a Congress controlled by the other party?
Why ask it
Presidents often face at least one chamber held by the other party, so treat this as a likely working condition and not a hypothetical. The useful answer is a deal they once struck and what they gave up to get it. 'Bringing people together' is the non-answer.
What would you do if the courts blocked your main proposal?
Why ask it
Large executive actions are routinely challenged in court, so this describes an ordinary week in the job. The choices are to appeal, to rewrite the order or to take it to Congress. Note whether obeying the ruling in the meantime is said outright or has to be drawn out of them.
How would you choose a Supreme Court nominee, and what would you want to know about them?
Why ask it
How a nominee gets chosen tells you more than a name would: who draws up the shortlist, whether outside groups supply it, and what the candidate would ask in the interview. Justices serve for life, so the pick goes on deciding cases long after the president has left.
What limits do you accept on the power of your own office?
Why ask it
The answer should name things: a spending law they would carry out though they opposed it, an inspector general they would not fire over a bad report, an emergency power they would not stretch to cover an ordinary policy fight. If all you hear is what they would get done, that was the answer to a different question.
How much say should a president have over who the Justice Department investigates?
Why ask it
The attorney general is the president's appointee, and the distance kept from individual cases has rested largely on custom. Ask whether they would ever order or stop a specific investigation, then notice whether you get a flat no or a list of exceptions.
What is the pardon power for, and what would you never use it for?
Why ask it
A pardon for a federal offense needs nobody else's approval, which makes it the clearest view of how a candidate would handle power with no check on it. The 'never' list is the commitment: family, donors, staff, themselves.
Will you accept the certified result of this election, whoever wins?
Why ask it
It can be answered in one word, and anything longer is what to listen to. If conditions come attached, ask what would settle it for them and whose ruling they would accept, a court's or a state election official's.
Character
What have you done that prepares you for this job?
Why ask it
No job is much like this one, so listen for the nearest thing: running something large, negotiating with people who owed them nothing, deciding under pressure. A list of titles held is not the answer. What they did with one of them is.
Where do you disagree with your own party's platform?
Why ask it
The safe reply is a difference of tone, or a fight the party settled years ago. A real one names a live plank, such as trade, spending or a war, and costs them some applause in the room. Follow with what they would do when Congress sends them that bill.
What have you changed your mind about in the last ten years, and why?
Why ask it
Every long career contains reversals, and the interesting part is whether the reason offered is evidence or convenience. Candidates who claim total consistency are usually asking you not to look at the record.
What is the biggest mistake you have made in public life, and what changed afterwards?
Why ask it
Expect a safe mistake, such as trusting someone for too long. The second half is the real question: what they do differently now because of it. A mistake that changed nothing was a line, not a lesson.
What is the strongest argument against your central proposal?
Why ask it
The test is whether an opponent sitting in the room would nod at their version of the objection. The common dodge is a cartoon of the other side, set up to be knocked over. If you get one, ask what a serious critic says about the cost.
What did the previous administration get right?
Why ask it
Few candidates rehearse this one. A named program or decision they would keep shows they have looked at what the government is doing now, and tells the people who rely on it where they stand. 'Nothing' is an answer too, and the follow-up is whether that covers the program you care about.
Who are the biggest funders of your campaign, and what do you think they expect?
Why ask it
Large donations show up in public filings, so the names can be checked and the candidate knows it. On what those donors expect, 'nothing' is less believable than an account of a time they told one of them no.
What will you make public about your finances and your health, and when?
Why ask it
Releasing tax returns and a doctor's summary has been a custom for candidates, not a legal requirement, so each one decides. A date is an answer here. 'When the time is right' is not.
Which past president do you most admire, and where would you part ways with them?
Why ask it
It sounds like a soft question, and the name is often predictable from the party. The second half does the work: what the candidate thinks that president got wrong shows whether the admiration is studied or borrowed.
What would you do, and what would you stop doing yourself, to make politics less bitter?
Why ask it
Every candidate promises to bring the country together, so the second half is what makes this a question. A real answer gives something up: a kind of attack ad, a nickname for an opponent, a habit of blaming one group. The quickest check is how they talked about the other side during the past hour.
What do you owe the people who did not vote for you?
Why ask it
A good one to end on. Every winner says they will be president for the whole country, so ask for something that could be checked: a rule about who gets a meeting, a region that voted the other way that they would keep visiting, a promise not to steer federal money by how a state voted.
Asking Candidates Questions That Get Answered
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the Event
Pick two questions, not the whole list
You will get one turn at a microphone, if that. Choose one question on the issue that brought you, and a second from Power or Character in case someone ahead of you asks yours. The rest of the list is for listening: a checklist of what a candidate has and has not been pinned down on by the end of the night.
Read the platform on your issue first
Asking something the campaign has published a position on invites a recitation of it. Read the position, then ask about the part it leaves out: the cost, the timing, or what happens if Congress refuses.
Write your question in one sentence
Moderators cut long questions off, and at some events staff choose who gets the microphone. A single sentence with one specific ask survives both.
Decide what would count as an answer
Know in advance whether you need a number, a name, or a date. Otherwise a fluent reply that contains none of those will feel like a response when it is not.
Check the format
Some events take written questions in advance, some select from raised hands, some route everything through a moderator. Where questions go in on cards, write one short question on one named subject, in handwriting a moderator can read aloud at a glance.
If there is no event near you
You can still send one question in writing through the campaign's website or a local office, and some debate organisers and local news outlets invite questions from the public. The same rule applies on paper: one sentence, one specific ask, and say where you live.
In the Room
- Ask for one thing. Many questions on this list have two halves, and a two-part question gets answered in the half the candidate prefers. With a moderator and a clock, ask the half you most want and keep the other for a follow-up.
- Use a number, a name or a date in the question itself. Specific asks are harder to answer generally.
- Skip the preamble about your own position. It uses your time and gives the candidate a target to respond to instead of the question.
- If the answer misses the point, restate the unanswered part once, briefly. You may be allowed one follow-up. Do not count on a second.
- Say where you are from or what you do only if it changes the question, as it does when you ask what a plan would cost a household like yours.
- Note the questions others ask that go unanswered. A pattern across an event tells you more than any single response.
Weighing the Answers
Separate what the office can do alone
Appointments, enforcement priorities and executive orders are within a president's control. Spending, taxation and most lasting change require Congress. A promise that ignores the difference is one the candidate cannot keep alone, so ask who else has to agree.
Compare the answer with the record
Voting records, past budgets and previous statements are public. A position that has moved is not itself a problem, provided the candidate will say when and why it moved.
Watch for the shift to values
A question about cost answered with a statement of principle is a non-answer, however well delivered. Note which subjects consistently trigger the shift.
Check the specifics afterwards
Figures quoted from a stage are worth checking against the campaign's own published plan and against nonpartisan budget and fact-checking sources. Where the stage figure and the written plan differ, the written plan is the one to hold them to.
If you are watching a debate
Pick five or six questions from the list before it starts and write the candidates' names across the top of a page. For each answer, mark whether you heard a number, a name or a date. Moderators move on quickly, so the blanks on your page are what to look up afterwards.
For a class or a mock debate
Give each group one section of the list and have them find the candidate's published position before writing the candidate's answer. The notes say what a full answer has to contain, which makes them a fair marking guide for both sides.
Common Mistakes
Making a speech instead of asking a question
It gives the candidate an easy target and the room stops listening. Save the argument and ask the question.
Asking something designed to embarrass
A gotcha question lets the candidate respond to the tone and skip the content, and the room may well side with them. A plain question about cost or timing is harder to escape.
Accepting agreement as commitment
"I agree with you completely" is not a position. Follow with what they would actually do, and by when.
Judging on delivery
Fluency and warmth are professional skills at this level, and they are not the same thing as running a government well. Written positions, likely appointments and past votes are better evidence.
Asking only the candidate you oppose
The list is meant to be put to every candidate in the same words, including the one you already like. An answer you would not accept from the other side is not a better answer from yours.