On Friday, September 12 the Democratic National Committee announced that CNN and The New York Times will host the fourth round of Democratic debates. The debate will take place at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.
The debate will take place on October 15, but could extend to a second night, depending on the number of candidates who qualify for the stage.
In the first three debates, there were only 10 candidates on each stage. But, as of mid-September, there are 11 candidates qualified for the October debate stage.
CNN and ABC have yet to officially announce if they will break the debate into two nights. If they keep the debate to one night, it will be the largest debate stage yet.
The current candidates who qualify for the October debate stage are:
- Joe Biden (26.2 percent)
- Cory Booker (2.6 percent)
- Pete Buttigieg (5 percent)
- Julián Castro (1.2 percent)
- Kamala Harris (6.2 percent)
- Amy Klobuchar (1.2 percent)
- Beto O’Rourke (3 percent)
- Bernie Sanders (16.8 percent)
- Tom Steyer (0.8 percent)
- Elizabeth Warren (17 percent)
- Andrew Yang (3 percent)
The qualifications for the fourth debate stage, set by the DNC, are the same as the third debate stage qualifications. Candidates must have 130,000 unique donors from at least 20 different states. They must also be polling at 2 percent in at least four national polls set out by the DNC.
Candidates must meet these qualifications before October 2 at 11:00 a.m. in order to partake in the fourth debate.
