The fifth 2020 Democratic primary presidential debate will take place November 20 in Georgia and have slightly fewer candidates than the last one.
In September, the Democratic National Committee announced a new set of higher polling and donor thresholds that candidates had to reach to participate in the November debate. Contenders had two possible ways to meet the polling requirement: They could either reach 3% in four national or early-state, DNC-approved polls, or reach 5% in two early-state polls. This is a higher bar to clear than the 2% polling requirement that was used for the September and October debates.
The donor threshold was also higher. Candidates needed to demonstrate that they have 165,000 unique donors, including at least 600 each in at least 20 states, U.S. territories or the District of Columbia. This was an increase from the 130,000-donor threshold used for the third and fourth debates.
Candidates had until 11:59 p.m. on November 13 to meet both polling and donor requirements. According to an analysis by CBS News, the following 10 candidates met both thresholds to participate in the November debate:
- Joe Biden
- Cory Booker
- Pete Buttigieg
- Tulsi Gabbard
- Kamala Harris
- Amy Klobuchar
- Bernie Sanders
- Tom Steyer
- Elizabeth Warren
- Andrew Yang
The debate will be hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post, and moderated by four female journalists — Rachel Maddow, host of “The Rachel Maddow Show”; Andrea Mitchell, host of “Andrea Mitchell Reports”; Kristen Welker, NBC News’ White House correspondent; and Ashley Parker, a White House reporter for The Washington Post.
The venue will be Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.
Twelve candidates took the stage for the fourth debate on October 15 at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. Previous debates have also taken place in Miami, Detroit and Houston.
