Shutterstock
The final Democratic Debate of the year takes place on Thursday, December 19. For the first time during the primary debate cycle, there will be less than candidates taking the stage. For the December debates, only seven candidates qualified and earned the opportunity to address the top issues facing potential voters.
The top tier of candidates — former Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders — all qualified for the November debate.
Other candidates to qualify were Senator Amy Klobuchar, and businessmen Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang.
Senator Kamala Harris would have been the eighth participant in the December Debate, presented by PBS NewsHour and Politico, but she recently chose to drop out of the race.
To qualify for the December Democratic Debate, candidates needed at least 200,000 individual donors and to either receive 4 percent support in four national or early-state approved polls conducted by qualifying pollsters between October 16 and December 12, or at least 6 percent support in two polls in the four states where early primaries will be held: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina.
The previous threshold was 165,000 donors and at least 3 percent support in four approved polls.
The 7 qualifying candidates are:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B6GPsCkAYni/
- Former Vice President Joe Biden
- South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg
- Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar
- Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
- Businessman Tom Steyer
- Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
- Businessman Andrew Yang
Moderating the debate will be NewsHour anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff, POLITICO chief political correspondent Tim Alberta, NewsHour senior national correspondent Amna Nawaz and NewsHour White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor.
The December debate — which is the sixth of the Democratic primary debates and the final of the year — will take place on December 19 at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. The debate will air live on PBS with a simulcast on CNN.
