CNN Preps For Second Debate With Candidate Lottery On July 18

Here we go again, folks. The second Democratic presidential primary debate is coming up soon later this month with the first night airing on July 30 followed by the second night on July 31.

Second Democratic Debate
Airing On: CNN
Date: July 30-31, 2019
Location: Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan
Moderators: Dana Bash, Don Lemon, and Jake Tapper

While NBC decided to hold a private “lottery” in mid-June to determine which night each candidate would appear during the first debate, CNN has decided to turn the candidate placement process into a primetime television special.

Live candidate draw

Just like the first debate, the next debate will be spread over 2 nights during primetime hours with 10 candidates appearing each night.

CNN has decided to hold a live “lottery” drawing to determine the lineup for each night which will air live on July 18 at 8 pm ET on CNN. According to CNN, more details will be released in the coming days.

Candidates must either register 1% support in three qualified polls or have 65,000 unique donors to their campaign, with a minimum of 200 different donors per state in at least 20 states to qualify for the second debate.

The deadline for meeting the qualifications is set for July 17, with the live drawing to happen on July 18.

Which candidates will qualify?

So far, here is the list of candidates that may qualify for the second debate. Candidates which meet both polling and fundraising thresholds are basically guaranteed a spot, while candidates that only meeting the polling threshold could be eliminated in a tie-breaking procedure since the debate is limited to 20 spots:

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Num	Candidate	Polls	Fundraising
1	Joe Biden
2	Cory Booker
3	Pete Buttigieg
4	Julian Castro
5	Tulsi Gabbard
6	Kirsten Gillibrand
7	Kamala Harris
8	Jay Inslee
9	Amy Klobuchar
10	Beto O’Rourke
11	Bernie Sanders
12	Elizabeth Warren
13	Marianne Williamson
14	Andrew Yang
15	Michael Bennet
16	Steve Bullock
17	Bill de Blasio
18	John Delaney
19	John Hickenlooper
20	Tim Ryan
21	Mike Gravel
22	Seth Moulton
23	Tom Steyer
24	Joe Sestak

For the most part, there will be no change in the field of candidates who appear in the second debate. The one exception could be Rep. Eric Swalwell, who is in danger of being replaced on the debate stage by Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, according to FiveThirtyEight:

We’ve been closely following the race among the less-popular Democratic candidates to see who qualifies to make the stage for each debate, including looking at the Democratic National Committee’s tiebreaker rules. The latest: Steve Bullock has inched ahead of Eric Swalwell in the race to make the second round of presidential primary debates on July 30-31.

That would leave Swalwell off the stage and give the twentieth spot to Bullock instead.

Update: Swalwell suspended his campaign on July 9 which forfeits his spot to Bullock meaning at the moment there are only 20 qualified candidates.

Follow the 2020 Democratic Debate schedule for the latest information on the upcoming debates.