ABC News has unveiled the lineup for the next 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate and 10 candidates have made it to the stage. The televised event will take place on just one night, September 12th, in Houston, Texas. Unlike the first two debates, qualifiers for this round precluded a swath of the candidates from participating. Campaigns were formally notified about their attendance on Thursday.
The third debate sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee comes on the heels of a number of polls that put former Vice President Joe Biden ahead of the pack with Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders trailing closely behind. The ABC News debate will, for the first time, put all the top candidates on the same stage.
According to ABC News, candidates will appear in the following order, from left to right:
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
Former Vice President Joe Biden
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
California Sen. Kamala Harris
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang
Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro
Political analysts believe that Biden will be the primary target on this debate stage with top candidates taking aim at his less progressive ideals. It may also be the first time that Warren faces real criticism from her cohorts given her growing popularity and favorable poll results.
Also, for the first time during this election cycle, the debates will take place at a historically Black university. Texas Southern is a public HBCU with an enrollment of over 10,000 students. The live, televised event will air from 8 to 11 p.m. ET on ABC, Univision, and ABC News Live. It will also stream on Hulu Live, The Roku Channel, Facebook Watch, AppleTV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube, Apple News, and Twitter.