The Democratic National Committee announced the first presidential primary debate lineups on Friday.
As many candidates are vying for the presidency, the DNC and NBC will hold two debates — one on June 26 and one on June 27.
Here is the lineup:
Debate 1: Cory Booker, Julián Castro, John Delaney, Bill de Blasio, Tulsi Gabbard, Jay Inslee, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Tim Ryan, Elizabeth Warren
Debate 2: Michael Bennet, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, John Hickenlooper, Bernie Sanders, Eric Swalwell, Marianne Williamson, Andrew Yang
The DNC claimed a “random” drawing on Friday to determine the debate lineup, but it was immediately apparent that the lineup favored Biden.
The debate lineup separates Warren from frontrunners Biden and Sanders and also separates O’Rourke, who has recently attacked Biden, from the former vice president. Warren will face a number of low polling candidates in the debate, rather than the top tier.
According to NBC:
It was a manual, in-person draw at NBC News Headquarters at 30 Rock
One representative of each of the qualifying campaigns was invited to attend the draw along with DNC officials
Campaign representatives saw their respective candidate’s paper slip with their name on it before it was folded and placed inside the box.
A representative from NBC News Standards & Practices conducted the draw
Candidates were divided into two groups:
Those who polled on average at or above 2% through midnight on Wednesday, June 12.
Those who polled on average below 2% through midnight on Wednesday, June 12
A random draw then took place, pulling from each of the respective above groups to create two separate groupings of 10.
NBC News then designated each of the groupings to a specific debate night.
NBC released these details of the random selection process in an email.
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