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10 Democrats set for first 2020 debates Wednesday night

By Daniel Uria
A sign for the NBC News Democratic debate is seen Wednesday at the Knight Concert Hall in Miami, Florida. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI
1 of 3 | A sign for the NBC News Democratic debate is seen Wednesday at the Knight Concert Hall in Miami, Florida. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

June 26 (UPI) -- The first Democratic presidential debate of the 2020 campaign will occur Wednesday night -- with the first of two nights in Miami.

Both debate nights will take place from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. EDT at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. They will be broadcast live by NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo. They will also be streamed live by NBC News and Telemundo. A panel comprised of Savannah Guthrie, Lester Holt, Chuck Todd, Rachel Maddow and Jose Diaz-Balart will moderate.

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Democratic Party rules say the candidates -- 10 on each night -- will have 60 seconds to answer questions and 30 seconds to respond to follow-up questions. They will not deliver opening statements. The debates will feature five segments separated by four commercial breaks.

The party held a random drawing earlier this month to determine who debates on which night.

The first round Wednesday will include Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren; New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker; former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke; former Housing Secretary Julian Castro; New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio; former Maryland Rep. John Delaney; Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard; Washington Gov. Jay Inslee; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan.

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Thursday, scheduled for the same time, will feature former Vice President Joe Biden; Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders; California Sen. Kamala Harris; South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg; Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet; New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand; former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; California Rep. Eric Swalwell; author Marianne Williamson and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

Five Democratic candidates did not qualify for the Miami debates -- Montana Gov. Steve Bullock; former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel; Miramar Fla., Mayor Wayne Messam, Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton and former Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak.

To qualify, candidates were required to draw at least 1 percent support in three qualifying polls, or raise funds from at least 65,000 unique donors in at least 20 states.

After the field was selected, the candidates were divided into groups -- those who polled above 2 percent on average and those who polled below that mark. The random draw then created the two groups featuring an equal number of candidates from each of the groups.

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"The purpose of that is to be consistent with our principle of trying to be fair to everybody but also ... so that we have maximum eyeballs both nights," DNC Chairman Tom Perez said.

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