The “revenge of the moderates” continues with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota, officially qualifying to join the November Democratic debate on MSNBC. This makes the ninth addition to the stage in Georgia on Nov. 20. MSNBC also recently released information about the panel of moderators who will be responsible for moving this event along and lobbing questions to the candidates.
MSNBC/Washington Post Democratic Debate (Fifth Debate)
Date: Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Time: 9 pm ET (6 pm PT)
Live Stream: MSNBC.com
Location: Georgia
Sponsors: MSNBC, The Washington Post
The debate will air live on MSNBC and will also stream on MSNBC.com and the Washington Post’s website, as well as via mobile devices from NBC News and the Washington Post’s mobile apps.
The November Democratic debate will be moderated by an all-female panel consisting of MSNBC/NBC News anchors and a reporter from the Washington Post.
The moderating panel includes MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell, NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker, and Washington Post White House reporter Ashley Parker.
The exact city, venue, and format of the debate will be announced at a later time by MSNBC.
November debate candidates
Klobuchar was in danger of missing the November debate and it was starting to look hopeless for her campaign. That is until she delivered a strong debate performance less than two weeks ago at the October debate which has arguably propelled some of her poll numbers into a November debate slot.
Here is the November debate stage lineup as it stands today:
| Num | Candidate | Polls AND Donors | Donors Only | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe Biden | ✓ | ||||
| 2 | Pete Buttigieg | ✓ | ||||
| 3 | Kamala Harris | ✓ | ||||
| 4 | Bernie Sanders | ✓ | ||||
| 5 | Elizabeth Warren | ✓ | ||||
| 6 | Cory Booker | ✓ | ||||
| 7 | Tom Steyer | ✓ | ||||
| 8 | Andrew Yang | ✓ | ||||
| 9 | Amy Klobuchar | ✓ | ||||
| 10 | Tulsi Gabbard | ✓ | ||||
| Not Qualified | ||||||
| 11 | Julian Castro | ✓ | ||||
| 12 | Michael Bennet | |||||
| 13 | Steve Bullock | |||||
| 14 | John Delaney | |||||
| 15 | Tim Ryan | |||||
| 16 | Joe Sestak | |||||
| 17 | Marianne Williamson | |||||
To qualify for November, candidates must hit at least 3 percent in four qualifying state or national polls or 5 percent in two qualifying state polls. The fundraising threshold requires candidates to have received contributions from 165,000 unique donors, including 600 unique donors in 20 states.
Other candidates
At the present time, three other candidates have reached the fundraising threshold, but have not yet met the polling requirement. Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and former HUD Secretary Julian Castro are all on the outside looking in.
O’Rourke and Gabbard both have one qualifying poll toward November, while Castro currently has none that would help him get on stage. Castro has stated that if he doesn’t get enough support by the end of October, he will likely end his campaign.
Day by day it becomes less likely that any of the three will be able to cross the threshold with the necessary number of polls since they’re all quite behind at this point.
The deadline for qualifying polls and donations for the November debate will be November 13 at 11:59 pm, according to the Democratic National Committee.
That still leaves time for more polls to come in, but the sheer number required means that each candidate would need a great string of luck between now and then. It would appear that NBC is not planning on expanding the stage and has stated the event will be 2 hours rather than the October debate on CNN which lasted a grueling 3 hours.
Follow all the complete details on the Democratic debate schedule page.
