There will be 12 — yes, 12 — Democratic presidential debates for the 2020 election cycle
If you're already feeling completely exhausted about the 2020 presidential election, we've got some bad news.
The Democratic National Committee on Thursday unveiled details about its 2020 presidential primary debate schedule: The organization is going to hold a total of 12 debates, with six coming in 2019 and six more in 2020, reports CNN.
The first will be in June 2019, meaning the DNC is getting started two months earlier than the RNC did in 2015. More debates will follow in July, September, October, November, and December. Then, you'll get what will presumably be a much-needed four month reprieve before the debating resumes in April 2020. For comparison, as Bloomberg's Jennifer Epstein points out, Democrats only scheduled four debates in 2016, though they added five more later.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Democrats are likely going to face a similar problem that Republicans did in 2016: far too many candidates to squeeze into one debate, at least early on. Republicans handled that by splitting some of their debates into two, with the low polling-candidates going first and the high-polling candidates making it into what was widely seen as the "real" event directly after. Democrats say they'll also split their early debates into two if need be, although in their case, the candidate placement would be randomly decided, according to DNC Chairman Tom Perez. The criteria to qualify for the debates hasn't been revealed, but the DNC says it won't just be polling and will take into account other factors like fundraising.
If the debates are split up, they'll also likely take place on two separate nights, meaning there would, in practice, actually be even more than 12 debates. Prepare yourself, because it's all just six months away.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
-
Court strikes down Texas GOP gerrymanderSpeed Read The Texas congressional map ordered by Trump is likely an illegal racial gerrymander, the court ruled
-
Trump defends Saudi prince, shrugs off Khashoggi murderSpeed Read The president rebuked an ABC News reporter for asking Mohammed bin Salman about the death of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Consulate in 2018
-
Congress passes bill to force release of Epstein filesSpeed Read The Justice Department will release all files from its Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation
-
Trump says he will sell F-35 jets to Saudi ArabiaSpeed Read The president plans to make several deals with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week
-
Judge blasts ‘profound’ errors in Comey caseSpeed Read ‘Government misconduct’ may necessitate dismissing the charges against the former FBI director altogether
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country
-
Trump pivots on Epstein vote amid GOP defectionsSpeed Read The president said House Republicans should vote on a forced release of the Justice Department’s Jeffrey Epstein files
-
Trump DOJ sues to block California redistrictingSpeed Read California’s new congressional map was drawn by Democrats to flip Republican-held House seats



