DNC announces 2020 debates in four early states
The Democratic National Committee announced it will hold four debates for its presidential candidates in the first two months of 2020, a jam-packed schedule as voting kicks off.
One debate will be held in each of the four early voting states: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
The Iowa debate — the seventh in a series of twelve planned debates — will be on Jan. 14. It will be hosted by CNN in partnership with The Des Moines Register at Drake University in Des Moines.
The New Hampshire debate will be on Feb. 7, hosted by ABC News in partnership with WMUR-TV, ABC’s local affiliate, and Apple News at St. Anselm College outside Manchester.
The ninth debate will be on Feb. 19 in Las Vegas, hosted by NBC News and MSNBC in partnership with The Nevada Independent.
The final early state debate announced will be at The Gaillard Center in Charleston, S.C., on Feb. 25. It will be hosted by CBS News and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute in partnership with Twitter.
Qualification criteria for the debates were not announced — nor were the format or moderators.
For the sixth debate, hosted by PBS NewsHour and POLITICO, candidates needed to hit 4 percent in four polls approved by the DNC (or 6 percent in two early state polls) and get donations from 200,000 unique contributors, with 800 in 20 states, territories or the District of Columbia.
Qualification thresholds are expected to increase after the sixth debate. However, DNC Chairman Tom Perez did not rule out changing what thresholds are used.
“One thing we will consider is: What should the rules of engagement be after people have started voting?” Perez said in an interview with The Washington Post in November. “Because right now, zero votes have been cast. The voters haven't spoken. What should the rules be once the voters have spoken, and we have some actual data from states? That’s the question that we are considering now.”
The Jan. 14 debate could be affected if President Donald Trump faces an impeachment trial in the Senate early next year. Of the seven candidates who have qualified for this month's debate, three are sitting senators: Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
A DNC official, who was granted anonymity by CNN, the media partner for that debate, told the network the committee "will work with" candidates if the trial interferes with the debate. "If a conflict with an impeachment trial is unavoidable, the DNC will evaluate its options and work with all the candidates to accommodate them," the unnamed DNC official told CNN.
