The Democratic National Committee says it intends to hold the next presidential debate on one night even with 12 candidates on the stage, according to multiple reports. Anyone else who hopes to qualify has until the end of Tuesday to do it.
According to a DNC email, the committee says the plan to keep the debate on one night -- Oct. 15 -- is pending a final decision after the certification deadline.
During two summer debates, 20 candidates qualified. The DNC split each debate up over two nights with 10 people on stage each night.
The October debate in Ohio, hosted and moderated by CNN and The New York Times, will be the second debate under the qualifying format which requires each person on stage to have at least 130,000 individual donors and at least 2% in four approved polls.
Ten candidates made the stage in September. Those 10, plus two more will put their positions forward to voters in two weeks.
- Former Vice President Joe Biden
- Sen. Cory Booker
- South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg
- Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro
- Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
- Sen. Kamala Harris
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar
- Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke
- Sen. Bernie Sanders
- Billionaire Tom Steyer
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren
- Former technology executive Andrew Yang
Several other candidates have reached the fundraising threshold, but are not close to meeting the polling requirements. They aren't likely to do so by Tuesday.
This could be the last debate for a few of these hopefuls. Criteria will be stricter for November's debate. Candidates will need at least 3% support in four national or single-state polls and 5% in two single-state polls. Candidates will need at least 165,000 unique donors.
