Which races get a debate stage
TV debates start at the Lawmaker level, and even then the stage opens only when the race matters: the presidential election, a race against your rival, your first run at an office, or a race the forecast calls close. Everything else is decided at the shown odds and reported in one line, so you are not playing the same game eight times a run.
Three formats rotate. Rebuttal Match pairs the right comeback with your opponent's line. Record Check is a quiz drawn from your own run: whether you switched parties, which pledges you made, your defeats and scandals. Battle of the Facts is a shell game. Winning is worth 2.5 points of vote share, losing costs 2.
Minigames are tap-only
Speech Rhythm, Rebuttal Match, Mash to Break Through, Shell Game, Dodge, First Pitch and Quiz are all played with taps or clicks. The percentage on screen is a difficulty, not an answer key: an average player succeeds about that often, and skill moves the result by roughly 15 points either way.
At any time you can press "Leave it to the odds" and the game resolves at the shown percentage. If you fail, you can spend extra stamina for one more try. With Auto-play on, or minigames switched off, everything resolves by the odds.
Between two elections you can run for, event minigames come up at most twice; after that it is the odds. Election TV debates do not count toward that limit.