We’re watching the eleventh 2020 Democratic presidential debate (Bernie vs. Joe). Join us!

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.