WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Over the past several months, presidential candidates have been visiting New Hampshire to deliver speeches or to meet privately in relatively safe settings in an effort to court the state's influential electorate.

But in June the White House hopefuls will take the stage to answer questions directly from New Hampshire voters and the state's two largest media organizations in the first debates of the 2008 presidential contest held in the Granite State.

Every major Republican candidate and every Democratic hopeful aside from Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have accepted an invitation extended by WMUR-TV, the New Hampshire Union Leader and CNN to participate in the presidential debates that are expected to help shape New Hampshire voters' opinions as they decide whom to back in this wide open presidential race.

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