ABC News announced Wednesday evening George Stephanopoulos, David Muir, Linsey Davis, and Jorge Ramos will serve as moderators for the next Democrat debate held in Houston, Texas next month.
The next Democrat debate is taking place September 12 and 13 in Houston, although the second debate will not be necessary unless additional Democrat candidates meet the qualifying thresholds. The debates will feature four moderators from the ABC orbit: ABC’s chief anchor George Stephanopoulos, World News Tonight’s David Muir, ABC News correspondent Linsey Davis, and Univision’s Jorge Ramos.
A candidate must garner at least two percent in four DNC-approved polls and meet a fundraising threshold of 130,000 individual donors– double the amount required for the last debates.
Only ten candidates have qualified for the debate thus far, including:
- Former vice president Joe Biden (D)
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
- Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA)
- Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D)
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
- Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)
- Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D)
- Former HUD secretary Julián Castro (D)
- Andrew Yang (D)
Marianne Williamson (D) and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) – both of whom came out as the respective winners of the last debates – are noticeably absent from the list. They have until August 28 to qualify for the debate. ABC will split the debate into two nights in the event that additional candidates qualify.
“If more than 10 candidates qualify under the rules, the debate will take place over two nights. For the two-night scenario, ABC News in accordance with the DNC will hold a selection event on Aug. 29 to randomly assign the candidates to a night,” ABC News reports.