Third Democrat Primary Debate Slated for Houston

The third Democrat primary debate will take place in Houston, the Democratic National Committee announced Tuesday.

According to the DNC, the third Democrat debate is set for September 12–13, although the second night may not be necessary. It depends on how many candidates remain. Certainly, if there are still 20 qualifying candidates, there would be a reason to split the debate into two nights.

It will be more difficult for candidates to qualify, as the DNC progressively tightens the criteria. According to reports, candidates will need to garner at least two percent in four select polls and have 130,000 unique donors. This is double the requirements of the first debate, which required 65,000 unique donors or one percent support in three qualifying polls.

Regardless, ABC and Univision will host the debate.

“As the nation’s most diverse city, Houston is the perfect place for the Democratic Party’s third debate,” DNC Chair Tom Perez said in a statement.

He continued:

Leaders like Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner have been key to making Houston the world class city it is today. Like the people of Texas, our candidates come from all kinds of backgrounds, and are all united by their deeply held values. We’ve seen firsthand in Texas that organizing everywhere through the Texas Democratic Party has led to victories all across the state, including flipping a dozen state House seats and making the state more competitive than it has been in decades. Houston is the perfect place to showcase our candidates so that they can share their vision for a better future for the American people.

Candidates still need to jump through the second debate hurdle before prepping for Houston. CNN is expected to announce the qualifying candidates for the second debate July 17 and conduct an on-air draw to determine the debate lineup the following day.

The network released the debate rules Tuesday, which revealed the absence of show-0f-hands, one-word responses, and down-the-line questions. Some believe this is CNN’s effort to “protect” Democrats from revealing their extreme positions.

As Breitbart News reported:

Democrats in the second debate last month were asked to raise a hand if their healthcare plan provided free services to illegal aliens. Every single one of the candidates during the second debate expressed support for providing taxpayer-funded healthcare to millions of illegal aliens.

The second debate will take place in Detroit on July 30–31.