ABC News – which is hosting the upcoming Democrat debate in Houston, Texas – announced the lineup for next month’s debate, which will not split into two nights due to only ten candidates meeting the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) polling and donor requirements.
The three-hour debate is taking place at Texas Southern University September 12 and will feature:
- Joe Biden (D)
- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
- Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA)
- Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)
- Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D)
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
- Beto O’Rourke (D)
- Andrew Yang (D)
- Julián Castro (D)
Moderators include ABC’s chief anchor George Stephanopoulos, World News Tonight anchor David Muir, ABC correspondent Linsey Davis, and Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, according to ABC News.
Each candidate will have the opportunity to give an opening statement, but there will not be closing remarks. Additionally, candidates will have one minute and 15 seconds to respond to questions and 45 seconds for rebuttals.
This will be the first time frontrunner Biden will face both Sanders and Warren – his fiercest competitors, as polls indicate – on the same debate stage.
A candidate must have garnered two percent in four DNC-approved polls and reached the 130,000 unique donor threshold in order to qualify– requirements that some campaigns have slammed.
“If the DNC had followed the process they announced in February and kept to the promised 17 [sic] qualifying polls, the lineup of the upcoming third debate might be very different,” Marriane Williamson’s (D) communications director Patricia Ewing said in a statement Wednesday.
“These DNC debate rules have turned this primary into The Hunger Games — each step of this seems to be all about getting donors,” Gov. Steve Bullock said, as reported by Breitbart News.
“The DNC’s process is stifling debate at a time when we need it most,” Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) said, echoing his fellow candidates who failed to make the cut.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) – the winner of the second Democrat debate in Detroit and the individual most responsible for stifling Harris’s momentum – did not make the cut either. Her campaign reportedly asked the DNC to “revise their list of debate qualifying polls in light of numerous irregularities in the selection and timing of those polls, to ensure transparency and fairness.”