Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders at podiums

Good evening, and wel­come to NPI’s live cov­er­age of the eleventh Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial debate of the 2020 cycle.

NPI staff are watch­ing and shar­ing impres­sions of the debate as it pro­gress­es, which will take place over the course of sev­er­al hours in Wash­ing­ton, D.C.

The media part­ners for tonight’s debate are CNN and Uni­vi­sion. CNN’s Dana Bash and Jake Tap­per and Uni­vi­sion’s Ilia Calderón are moderating.

Here’s a primer on the qual­i­fi­ca­tion thresh­olds:

To make the March 15th debate stage, can­di­dates need­ed to have been allo­cat­ed at least 20% of the total num­ber of pledged del­e­gates allo­cat­ed across all of the fol­low­ing con­tests: Alaba­ma, Amer­i­can Samoa, Arkansas, Cal­i­for­nia, Col­orado, Democ­rats Abroad, Guam, Ida­ho, Iowa, Maine, Mass­a­chu­setts, Michi­gan, Min­neso­ta, Mis­sis­sip­pi, Mis­souri, Neva­da, New Hamp­shire, North Car­oli­na, North Dako­ta, North­ern Mar­i­ana Islands, Okla­homa, South Car­oli­na, Ten­nessee, Texas, Utah, Vir­ginia, Ver­mont and Wash­ing­ton. The allo­ca­tions need to have been made by by 9 AM ET on March 15th.

The total del­e­gate allo­ca­tion was deter­mined by adding togeth­er all of the del­e­gates allo­cat­ed to can­di­dates by CNN or the Asso­ci­at­ed Press, accord­ing to the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Committee.

The num­ber of del­e­gates need­ed to qual­i­fy for the debate was deter­mined by mul­ti­ply­ing the total del­e­gate allo­ca­tion by 0.20 and round­ing the result to the near­est whole number.

The can­di­dates’ del­e­gate per­cent­age was cal­cu­lat­ed by divid­ing the num­ber of pledged del­e­gates allo­cat­ed to them by CNN or Asso­ci­at­ed Press by the total del­e­gate allo­ca­tion and round­ing the result to the near­est whole number.

Tonight’s debate is the first 2020 Demo­c­ra­t­ic debate to fea­ture only two can­di­dates: Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden and Sen­a­tor Bernie Sanders, the only can­di­dates who have a cred­i­ble path to the nom­i­na­tion. U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tul­si Gab­bard, who claims to be a Demo­c­rat, did not qual­i­fy for the debate.

Our live cov­er­age begins below.

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

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