The first Democratic primary Presidential debate has just concluded. But don’t worry – if you didn’t get to watch the whole thing, you haven’t lost your chance. You can watch the entire debate in the embedded video above.
The first debate featured 10 out of 20 candidates who were chosen at random and it aired from 9-11 p.m. Eastern on June 26, 2019.
The event was hosted by NBC News, MSNBC, and Telemundo. The moderators were Savannah Guthrie, Lester Holt, Chuck Todd, Rachel Madow, and Jose Dia-Balart.
The first hour was moderated by Holt and Guthrie, along with commentary from Diaz-Balart. The second hour was moderated by Holt with the help of Todd and Maddow.
Candidates were able to qualify by either raising donations from 65,000 donors (and a minimum of 200 per state from 20 states) or polling at 1 percent in qualified polls that ended two weeks before the debates. The candidates for tonight are Julian Castro, Beto O’Rourke, John Delaney, Bill de Blasio, Tulsi Gabbard, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Inslee.
The DNC randomly drew names for who would attend the debates from two groups: those who polled 2 percent or higher and those who polled below 2 percent. Interestingly, the debates still ended up a bit lopsided, with all the top-polling candidates appearing in the June 27 debate except for Elizabeth Warren, who was in tonight’s debate.
The candidates’ positions on stage were determined based on their polls, so that the top polling candidates would be in the center of the stage. That’s why Warren was in the center of the stage tonight. The lineup from left to right tonight is de Blasio, Ryan, Castro, Booker, Warren, O’Rourke, Klobuchar, Gabbard, Inslee, and Delaney.
If you’re interested in watching tomorrow night’s debate, a live stream is provided below.
In total, 20 candidates will appear in both the first and second debates. It will likely be roughly the same number of candidates for the July debates. But come September, the field will be narrowed significantly when the requirements for being in the debates are increased. The DNC is likely doing this so they can start having a smaller candidate pool to help viewers concentrate better. Some candidates will obviously make the cut, like Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Other candidates, like Andrew Yang, are close to making the cut donations wise. Whether he makes the cut polls-wise will likely depend, in part, on how he performs and the kind of attention he gets during the June and July debates.