The sixth debate featuring the Democratic presidential candidates will take place from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
Seven hopefuls, the smallest number this far for a debate this primary season, have qualified: billionaire Tom Steyer, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.
Multibillionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is self-funding his campaign so he didn’t meet the threshold for donors.
The televised contest ahead of Christmas will bring the rivals to heavily Democratic California, the biggest prize in the primary season and home to 1 in 8 Americans. And, coming a day after a politically divided US House voted to impeach the Republican president, the debate will underscore the paramount concern for Democratic voters: Who can beat Trump in November?
The debate will be hosted by PBS NewsHour and Politico. It will air on PBS stations and CNN and will be livestreamed on the websites for Politico, PBS, CNN, CNN International and CNN En Espanol. The moderators are Judy Woodruff, Amna Nawaz and Yamiche Alcindor of PBS NewsHour and Tim Alberta of Politico.
There will be no opening statements by the candidates. Moderators will question the candidates, who will be allowed one-minute, 15 seconds for responses. The seven candidates will get 45 seconds for rebuttals and follow-ups. They will also be allotted one-minute closing statements.
But with voters distracted by the holidays and the impeachment proceedings in Washington, the debate could turn out to be the least watched so far. Viewership has declined in each round through five debates, and even campaigns have grumbled that the candidates would rather be on the ground in early voting states than again taking the debate stage.
There will also be a notable lack of diversity onstage compared with earlier debates. For the first time this cycle, the debate won’t feature a black or Latino candidate.
Biden adviser Symone Sanders said to expect another robust exchange on health care. “This is an issue that is not going away and for good reason, because it is an issue that in 2018 Democrats ran on and won,” she said.
Jess O’Connell, a senior adviser with Buttigieg’s campaign, said the candidate will “be fully prepared to have an open and honest conversation about where there are contrast between us and the other candidates. This is a really important time to start to do that. Voters need time to understand the distinctions between these candidates.” The key issues: health care and higher education.
Two of the candidates who didn’t make the stage will still make their presence felt for debate watchers with ads reminding viewers they’re still in the race.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and former Housing Secretary Julián Castro are airing television ads targeted to primary voters during the debate. Booker’s is his first television ad, and in it he says even though he’s not on the debate stage, “I’m going to win this election anyway.” It’s airing as part of a $500,000 campaign, running in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, as well as New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. A pro-Booker super PAC is also going up with an ad in Iowa highlighting positive reviews of Booker’s past debate performances.
Meanwhile, Castro is running an ad, in Iowa, in which he argues the state should no longer go first in Democrats’ nominating process because it doesn’t reflect the diversity of the Democratic Party.
Both candidates failed to hit the polling threshold to qualify for the debates and have in recent weeks become outspoken critics of what they say is a debate qualification process that favors white candidates over minorities.
A labor dispute between union workers and a subcontractor for Loyola Marymount University almost derailed the debate when the seven candidates said they wouldn’t cross a picket line to participate in the debate. A last-minute tentative agreement allowed the contest to proceed.
The next debate will be held on Jan. 14 at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
It will be hosted by CNN in partnership with the Des Moines Register.
–with Associated Press
