The Hill News

A Tea Party organization is hosting a ground-breaking presidential debate on July 20 solely through Twitter.

The Twitter debate will feature top Republican presidential candidates responding directly and in real time to questions sent in through Twitter.

The 90-minute event will unfold at 140Townhall.com between 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. EST and is hosted by TheTeaParty.net.

Confirmed participants include Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), businessman Herman Cain, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.),  former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).

Candidates will be tweeting directly through their own Twitter feeds in response to questions sent in from anyone with access to Twitter through @140townhall or email! through info@theteaparty.net. The organization is already accepting questions, according to Dustin Stockton, media director for TheTeaParty.net. The candidates will tweet from wherever they happen to be at the time, which is "one of the benefits of the medium" chosen for the debate, Stockton noted.

The organization has put together a committee of what Stockton called "Tea Party activists" from local Tea Party groups nationwide to filter through the questions that the moderator, Fox News commentator S.E. Cupp, will tweet out during the event as questions for the candidates.

Cupp will moderate from Concord, New Hampshire, where the organization plans to set up TV monitors to stream Twitter interaction. According to Stockton, a crowd of less than 200 is expected to attend the event live. Introductory video statements of less than 3 minutes by the candidates will be shown in New Hampshire and also provided through links on 140townhall.com.

TheT! eaParty.net, which describes itself as a central location for ! Tea Part y activists funded by the non-profit Stop This Insanity Inc., described the event in a press release as a chance to prove untrue "the media narrative that the Tea Party movement is dead."