How to Watch the December Democratic Debate

It’s that time of the year. The days get grayer, the air gets sharper, the nights stretch longer. The long cold season hasn’t even truly begun, and yet already it feels as if we’ve been trapped in its icy clutches forever. One ray of hope: As of this weekend, the darkest days will be behind us.

The sixth Democratic debate is Thursday night, and with its conclusion we will officially be halfway through the dozen-debate obstacle course erected by the Democratic National Committee for its historically large field of contenders.

The debate kicks off on December 19 at 8 pm ET (5 pm PST). This time, the DNC-sanctioned event is cohosted by PBS NewsHour and Politico, who will broadcast live from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. There had been some uncertainty surrounding the debate thanks to a labor dispute on campus, and the Democratic candidates announcing they’d boycott in solidarity with the workers. The LA Times reported the union reached a tentative agreement on Tuesday, and so the debate is definitely on.

Who’s Debating Whom

America, it took half a year but we are finally down to a debate lineup numbering in the single digits. Whether that’s a good thing is itself up for debate, but more on that in a second.

Seven candidates qualified for tonight’s debate. All the participants had to reach at least 4 percent support in four approved national or early-state polls, as well as fund-raise from at least 200,000 donors, including a minimum of 800 individuals in 20 states.

In alphabetical order, the debaters are:

Joe Biden, former vice president
Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana
Amy Klobuchar, US senator from Minnesota
Bernie Sanders, US senator from Vermont
Tom Steyer, billionaire
Elizabeth Warren, US senator from Massachusetts
Andrew Yang, tech entrepreneur

How do the candidates shape up when it comes to tech issues? WIRED’s own Gilad Edelman surveyed the field.

Some notable candidates remain in the race, yet are not appearing onstage Thursday evening. Former NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg is a late entrant in the field; the billionaire has also chosen not to fund-raise for his campaign, which means he can’t meet any sort of donor threshold. Other candidates, like New Jersey senator Cory Booker and former Obama administration cabinet member Julián Castro, have failed to meet the polling threshold. Last week, news outlets reported, Booker sent a letter to the DNC calling on chairman Tom Perez to change the qualification standards so that either a polling or fund-raising minimum is required—not both. “The escalating thresholds over the past few months have unnecessarily and artificially narrowed what started as the strongest and most diverse Democratic field in history before voters have had a chance to be heard,” reads the letter, which was signed by Castro and the seven candidates who did make December’s debate.

Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who also didn’t meet the polling threshold, did not sign the letter. She did, however, tweet.

How to Watch

Unlike the presidential debates, which are simulcast across all the major networks, primary debates—for either party—are hosted by a rotating cast of news organizations. (I have included this line in every one of these “how to watch” stories so far, and imagine it being read in the same voice as the Law & Order opening narration. Chung chung.) The sixth Democratic debate is being cohosted by PBS NewsHour and Politico at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. The moderators are Politico’s Tim Alberta, and from NewsHour Yamiche Alcindor, Amna Nawaz, and Judy Woodruff.