Arctic and Military Presence are the final choices for the 2025-2026 National Debate Topic
As a part of the process to determine the 2025-2026 national debate topic, The National Federation of State High School Associations recently tabulated ballots from 30 states and four partner organizations, including the National Speech and Debate Association, the National Debate Coaches Association, the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues, and the National Catholic Forensic League. This step, which narrows five proposed topics to a final two, required organizations to rank those five potential topics using a scale of one to five, with “one” being the preferred topic and “five” being least desirable.
The two topic areas receiving the lowest total ranking scores were “Arctic” and “Military Presence.” These two topics will be placed on a final ballot, which will be sent to states and partner organizations for a final vote. On January 10, 2025, the NFHS will announce the preferred topic area and resolution, and the 2025-2026 national high school debate topic and resolution will be posted on the NFHS Speech and Debate webpage and sent to state associations and affiliate members.
The following states and partner organizations returned ballots:
| COLUMN A | COLUMN B | COLUMN C |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona | California | Colorado |
| District of Columbia | Georgia | Idaho |
| Illinois | Iowa | Kansas |
| Kentucky | Maryland | Massachusetts |
| Michigan | Minnesota | Mississippi |
| Missouri | Montana | NAUDL |
| NCFL | NDCA | Nevada |
| New Hampshire | New Jersey | New York |
| NSDA | Oklahoma | Oregon |
| Pennsylvania | Tennessee | Texas |
| Utah | Virginia | Wisconsin |
| Wyoming |
Within each potential debate topic area appears one resolution. The resolutions within the two final topic areas are:
**Arctic
**Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly increase its exploration and/or development of the Arctic.
**Military Presence
**Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly reduce its military presence in one or more of the following: Bahrain, Japan, Kuwait, South Korea.
The following chart summarizes the balloting on the topic areas and their respective resolutions. Areas ranked 1-2-3-4-5 with low combined total indicative of top ranking.
**Final Ranking Vote Tally
**91 – Arctic
92 – Military Presence
96 – India
108 – Nation State Recognition
121 – South Asia
FREE resources on the Intellectual Property Rights Topic (Debated in 2024-2025)