For the first time since Nancy Pelosi launched the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, the top 12 Democratic primary candidates will take part in a debate. This marks the fourth Democratic primary debate of the 2020 campaign season.
The event is co-hosted by CNN and the New York Times and will be held at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio where it will air at 8 p.m. EST on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español while streaming exclusively on of the homepages of CNN and the New York Times. The debate will be moderated by CNN anchors Erin Burnett and Anderson Cooper along with New York Times national editor Marc Lacey.
Frontrunners Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, former vice president Joe Biden and Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren will be joined by the nine other potential Democratic candidates: New Jersey senator Cory Booker, mayor of South Bend, Ind., Pete Buttigieg, former housing and urban development secretary Julián Castro, California senator Kamala Harris, Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, businessman Tom Steyer, entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
The candidates participating in tonight’s debate needed to achieve a two-percent rating in four separate Democratic National Committee-approved polls plus receive contributions from 130,000 unique donors with 400 donors coming from 20 different states. Marianne Williamson, Wayne Messam, Joe Sestak, John Delaney, Tim Ryan, Michael Bennet and Steve Bullock did not meet all of the qualifications to participate in tonight’s debate.