The second of the Democratic debates is tonight, Thursday, June 27, 2019, in Miami. What time is the debate starting? Here’s a quick look at when you’ll need to tune in for the debate in different time zones, including the West coast.
Tonight is the second Democratic debate for the hotly contested primary election. Last night, 10 candidates faced the nation for the first time together, and tonight the second set of 10 will be debating.
The debates will begin at 9 p.m. Eastern and last until 11 p.m. Eastern. In the Central time zone, this means the debates will begin at 8 p.m. Central and last until 10 p.m. Central.
On the West coast, the debates tonight will air live at the same time they air in the rest of the nation. So unlike some TV shows that air delayed in the Pacific time zone, this is not the case for the West coast. According to TV Guide’s listing, the debates will begin at 6 p.m. Pacific and end at 8 p.m. Pacific. So if you’re on the West Coast, you’ll be watching the debates pretty much as soon as you get off work if you want to see them live.
If you’re watching on MSNBC, the broadcast begins officially at 9 p.m. Eastern, but they will also be airing a Democratic Candidates Debate Pre-Show from 7-9 p.m. Eastern, an hour before the official debate begins. NBC won’t have any pre-debate coverage. Their coverage will begin right at 9 p.m. Eastern.
The lineup for the second debate will be: Michael Bennet, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, John Hickenlooper, Bernie Sanders, Eric Swalwell, Marianne Williamson, and Andrew Yang.
The second debate will be held at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami. The moderators will be Savannah Guthrie, Lester Holt, Chuck Todd, Rachel Maddow, and Jose Diaz-Balart.
To qualify for tonight’s debate, candidates had to either poll at one percent or higher in three qualified polls or receive donations from 65,000 people. The same criteria are in place for the second set of debates in July, but after that the qualifications will be tougher to meet. The September debates will require at least 130,000 unique donors (a minimum of 400 per state in at least 20 states) and 2 percent in four qualifying polls that are between June 28 and August 28.
We won’t see the following candidates at tonight’s debate, and they weren’t on last night’s either: Steve Bullock, Seth Moulton, Wayne Messam, and Mike Gravel. Bullock has qualified for the second set of Democratic debates, but he didn’t qualify in time for the first set. Bullock is going to host his own televised town halls in Iowa and New Hampshire during the debates, Politico reported. These won’t be televised at the same time as the debates, but they’ll happen just before tonight’s debate.
You can watch the debate live at 9 p.m. ET in the video player below: