There are well over 20 candidates in the Democratic primary for 2020 president but you’ll only see 10 take the stage for the third democratic debate on September 12, 2019. That’s because, in order to qualify for the third debate, candidates had to collect contributions from 130,000 individual donors and attract two percent support in four qualifying national or early-state polls released between June 28 and August 28.
Now that the deadline has officially passed, we have our answer. Here are the qualifying candidates:
- Former Vice President Joe Biden
- Senator Cory Booker
- Mayor Pete Buttigieg
- Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro
- Senator Kamala Harris
- Senator Amy Klobuchar
- Former Congressman Beto O’Rourke
- Senator Bernie Sanders
- Senator Elizabeth Warren
- Entrepreneur Andrew Yang
Three candidates met the donor threshold but didn’t quite nab the polling threshold: philanthropist Tom Steyer, Representative Tulsi Gabbard, and author Marianne Williamson, FiveThirtyEight reports. They have until August 28 at midnight for any polling to be released securing their position in the debates.
That leaves seven more candidates who were in the second debate but won’t be in the third: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who dropped out of the race on Wednesday, August 28, Senator Michael Bennet, Montana Governor Steve Bullock, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, former Representative John Delaney, Representative Tim Ryan, and former Representative Joe Sestak. It’s unclear whether any of these 10 candidates will drop out of the race. So far, former Senator Mike Gravel, Governor Jay Inslee, former Governor John Hickenlooper, and Representative Seth Moulton, and Representative Eric Swalwell have also dropped out of the race.
The debate will be moderated by Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos, World News Tonight Anchor David Muir, ABC News Correspondent Linsey Davis, and Univision Anchor Jorge Ramos, according to ABC News. It will likely take similar turns to past debates: Candidates will have one minute and 15 seconds to respond to moderators’ questions and 45 seconds to respond to follow-up questions, ABC News reports.
This post has been updated to reflect that Senator Kirsten Gillibrand dropped out of the presidential race.
