Emma Axelrod, Sammi Siegel and Elena Tsemberis started a petition calling for a female moderator in this year’s presidential debates. (Elizabeth Bunn.Medill News Service)
WASHINGTON — The last time a woman moderated a presidential debate, Emma Axelrod, Sammi Siegel and Elena Tsemberis weren’t even born.
That’s why the teenagers – Axelrod and Tsemberis are 16, Siegel is 15 – are calling on the Commission on Presidential Debates to appoint a female moderator for one of the three 2012 presidential debates. ABC’s Carole Simpson moderated the 1992 presidential debate, but in the 20 years since, it’s been all men.
“I’ve never seen a woman on that stage … asking those questions,” Axelrod said. “It’s been men all my life, so how am I supposed to feel about myself when I’m being told only men can do this?”
But when the three high school students carried their petitions – three large boxes with more than 120,000 signatures – into the commission Tuesday, they were turned away at the door. They said security guards told them they could not leave boxes. They were disappointed, but not discouraged.
“We’re not going to give up yet,” Siegel said. “We’re going to keep trying and we really hope that this happens and this election will different than the past two decades.”
“And our campaign will go on,” Tsemberis said. “We’re still hopeful.”
The Commission on Presidential Debates announced the formats for the three 2012 presidential debates last week, but they won’t announce the moderators until later this month.
“If the commission decides to include a female moderator at one of the presidential debates, it will be a significant step to help Americans see that women are equally as capable as men,” Tsemberis said.
The young women launched their petition on Change.org last spring. Since then, according to the petition’s web page, they’ve gathered nearly 120,000 signatures. They also started a new petition aimed at the campaigns of President Barack Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney.
“They need to be aware of this, too, and try to fight for a woman moderator,” Siegel said. In the week and a half since that petition’s launch, it’s collected slightly more than 55,000 signatures.
Moving forward, the trio said they’re planning to present the petitions to the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee.