2020 Democratic National Convention, Demonstrations and protests
Several groups scheduled protests in Milwaukee during the convention. Ryan Hamann, co-chair of the "Coalition to March on the DNC" stated that his coalition's planned protests would focus on police reform, in effect being a continuance of the nationwide George Floyd protests.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Demonstrations and protests
On August 2, the City of Milwaukee reported that very little interest had been indicated by parties in seeking permits to either organize a downtown parade or a speech in a downtown park.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Demonstrations and protests
Club Kids Inc. was scheduled to hold a permitted parade in Milwaukee at noon CDT on August 17. The Women's Human Rights Campaign was scheduled to hold a permitted parade in Milwaukee on August 20 at 10 A.M. CDT.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Demonstrations and protests
One day before the opening of the convention, the "DNC Delegates United for Peace" protest saw protesters, including convention delegates, protest in Milwaukee against war and military spending.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Demonstrations and protests
Other groups protesting in Milwaukee included Democrats for Life of America.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Demonstrations and protests
The Trump campaign held counter-events in Wisconsin during the convention. The campaign officially held a "Women for Trump" campaign event in Pleasant Prairie the day before the start of the convention. Additionally, the White House held multiple events in Wisconsin, which included one event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on the opening day of the convention, and another in Milwaukee itself the third day of the convention, with the first event featuring President Donald Trump and the latter event featuring Vice President Mike Pence. The presence of a Trump event caused the Coalition to March on the DNC to alter their plans for Monday and protest outside of the Trump event rather than outside of the convention itself.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Demonstrations and protests
There were protests outside of the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington, with over 100 pro-Trump demonstrators assembling a few hours prior to Biden's acceptance speech and electronic message trucks driving around the site criticizing Biden's alleged sexual assault of a former aide. The trucks were paid for Turning Point Action.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage
The convention was slimmed down from previous iterations in terms of the length of television programming it provided, with only two hours of televised events taking place on each night of the convention. Domestic 24-hour cable news channels broadcast both hours, but Fox News and the big three domestic television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) only broadcast the last hour. In contrast, for past conventions, domestic 24-hour cable news channels broadcast wall-to-wall coverage of day-long proceedings. However, the length of prime time coverage provided by the "Big Three" domestic television networks was also one hour per night during the Democratic and Republican conventions of 2016.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage
PBS aired three hours of nightly coverage, including commentary. A number of domestic cable news channels and internet news platforms and streaming video news channels also aired significant coverage of the convention in addition to the two hours of the convention itself.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage
In addition to the main convention broadcast, other media coverage opportunities were made available to the press by the convention organizers and the Biden campaign, including remote press briefings and interviews.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage
Broadcasters pooled their resources and shrunk their footprints at the convention. The convention organizers worked with both the network pool and the congressional press galleries to establish pooled media opportunities. There was more of a reliance by broadcasters on footage from press pool cameras than at past conventions. Broadcasters relied on the same shared camera feed of the convention's stage. As with past conventions, the convention organizers made a feed of convention proceedings available for free to media organizations.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage
Due to the pandemic, and the resultant decentralization of the convention, there was only expected to be a small press pool in Milwaukee, with as few as a hundred media personnel being anticipated to travel to Milwaukee. This was drastically less than the more than 15,000 that traveled to Philadelphia for the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Unlike past conventions, most broadcasters did not send correspondents to the convention site, and instead filmed their reporters at remote sites. Limited press were be admitted into the Wisconsin Center headquarters of the convention.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage
Those reporters that did go to the convention were socially distanced, and, at least at times, reported from outside of the convention hall. Most broadcasters had their correspondents provide coverage from network studios in New York City and Washington, D.C. In addition to filming their correspondents off-site, most broadcasters also used their primary control rooms in their headquarter cities, as opposed to the practice of establishing temporary control rooms in the convention city as many had for past conventions. Few national broadcasters sent crews to Milwaukee.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage
After the downsizing, but even before it was announced that Biden and other speakers would no longer travel to Milwaukee, many broadcasters had already substantially scaled back plans to send reporters to the city, or had planned to forgo sending reporters to the city altogether. By July 29, Fox News was the only broadcaster confirmed to be sending correspondents to the convention hall itself.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage
As of early July, MSNBC had still planned a "light footprint" in the city Milwaukee, but planned to position the reporters they do send outdoors, where they can socially distance from each other, instead of inside the convention venue. CNN also, as of early August, still planned to send reporters to Milwaukee. As of early August, CBS News was planning to send two correspondents to Milwaukee.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage
In addition, after the downsizing, but even before it was that Biden and other speakers would no longer be traveling to Milwaukee, broadcasters had already planned to significantly decrease the size of crews they would send to capture the convention in comparison to previous years. CNN had already canceled its original plans to operate a "CNN Grill" studio and meeting space, similar to those it had operated at every major party convention since 2004. They had originally planned to use Turner Hall for such a space.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage
Fox News, on the other hand, before the announcement that Biden and other speakers would not be traveling to the convention, still planned to retain their plans to utilize the Deer Camp building in Milwaukee as a broadcast space, and CBS News still planned to rent the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center for broadcast use. NBCUniversal cancelled similar plans to use the Good City Brewing location adjacent to the Fiserv Forum.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage
Due to the fact that Biden and Harris spoke from Wilmington, Delaware, some media personnel covered the convention from there, with a number of broadcast vans and media tents being stationed in the parking lots of the Chase Center on the Riverfront (where Biden and Harris spoke) and adjacent Frawley Stadium.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage
The originally-planned full-scale convention in the Fiserv Foum would have seen broadcasters set up live sets inside the arena, as has been practice at past conventions. Before the announcement that speakers would no longer be traveling to Milwaukee, convention organizers had been setting up some form of indoor and outdoor news media spaces at the Milwaukee convention hub.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage
The Wisconsin Center was used for the convention's broadcast and production, acting as the control room and "hub" of the convention production. The convention organizers established a custom video control room there designed to handle hundreds of feeds from across the country, in order to accommodate the remote speeches. Supplementary control rooms existed in other locations, such as in Delaware. Producer Glenn Weiss oversaw the production from a temporary control studio created for him at his personal residence.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Official streams and watch parties
In addition to coverage by broadcasters, there is a stream broadcast by the DNC itself on fifteen platforms. These platforms are the convention's website, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, Amazon Prime Video, Microsoft Bing, Apple TV, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV, AT&T U-verse, DirectTV, Comcast Xfinity X1, Comcast Xfinity Flex, and Amazon Alexa.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Official streams and watch parties
In addition, the Biden campaign scheduled numerous virtual watch parties during the convention which showed a stream of the convention, with a number of them being hosted by prominent politicians and celebrities. Some outdoor socially-distanced watch parties were hosted by Democratic Party organizations, such as one for Connecticut convention delegates to attend at Dunkin' Donuts Park in Hartford. There were additionally drive-in watch parties held by Democratic Party organizers, including one right outside the Chase Center on the Riverfront on the night Biden accepted his nomination there.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Evening television viewership
According to Nielsen, the Democratic National Convention averaged 21.6 million views across all traditional cable and television networks across all four nights. This is composed of 19.7 million viewers on night 1, 19.2 million viewers on night 2, 22.8 million viewers on night 3, 24.6 million viewers on night 4.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Evening television viewership, Night 1
Night one of the Democratic convention had 19.7 million viewers across all cable and television networks tracked by Nielsen. The first night of the Republican convention had 17.0 million viewers across the same networks.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Evening television viewership, Night 1
Night one of the Democratic convention had 18.8 million viewers across six major, traditional television (NBC, CBS, ABC) and cable networks (FNC, CNN, MSNBC) tracked by Nielsen. The first night of the Republican convention had 15.9 million viewers across the same six networks.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Evening television viewership, Night 1
The viewership for the first night of the convention was down by 25% compared to the equivalent night in 2016.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Evening television viewership, Night 1
Compared to 2016, the only network that saw a rise in viewership for Night 1 was MSNBC.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Evening television viewership, Night 2
Night two of the Democratic convention had 19.2 million viewers across all television networks tracked by Nielsen. The second night of the Republican convention had 19.4 million viewers across the same networks.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Evening television viewership, Night 2
Night two of the Democratic convention had 18.5 million viewers across six major, traditional television and cable networks tracked by Nielsen. The second night of the Republican convention had 18 million viewers across the same six networks. These numbers do not include viewers on streaming services.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Evening television viewership, Night 2
Compared to 2016, the only network that saw a rise in viewership for Night 2 was MSNBC.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Evening television viewership, Night 3
Night three of the Democratic convention had 22.8 million viewers across all television networks tracked by Nielsen. The third night of the Republican convention had 17.3 million viewers across the same networks.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Evening television viewership, Night 3
Night three of the Democratic convention had 21.5 million viewers across six major, traditional television and cable networks tracked by Nielsen.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Evening television viewership, Night 3
Compared to 2016, the only network that saw a rise in viewership for Night 3 was MSNBC.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Evening television viewership, Night 4
Night four of the Democratic convention had 24.6 million viewers across all television networks tracked by Nielsen.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Evening television viewership, Night 4
Compared to 2016, the only network that saw a rise in viewership for Night 4 was MSNBC.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Broadcast and media coverage, Evening television viewership, Night 4
Compared to Night 3 of 2020, the only networks that saw a rise in viewership for Night 4 were Fox News Channel and ABC.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Impact, Lack of a convention bounce
The first polls conducted after the Democratic National Convention showed no convention bounce for Biden. Later polling, conducted after the Republican National Convention concluded the following week, indicated that there had been virtually no convention bounce for either party coming out of August conventions held in back-to-back weeks.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Impact, Lack of a convention bounce
Ahead of, and during, the conventions, various outlets had speculated that significant convention bounces were unlikely for either party. This was due to several cited factors. One was that it had been observed that convention bounces had been more minuscule in recent elections. Per some calculations, convention bounces had averaged just 2 points since 2004, compared to just under 7 points between 1968 and 2000. Per other calculations, average bounces since 1996 averaged 3.6 points, while bounces between 1962 and 1992 averaged 6.3 points.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Impact, Lack of a convention bounce
Another factor cited for why it was seen as unlikely for either party to generate a significant convention bounce was that polls in the 2020 race had, in the months prior to the convention, shown a remarkably steady race, with Biden maintaining an average lead of 6 points, exceeding a 10-point lead in some polls and never slipping below a lead of 4 points in the polling average. It has been shown that more stable races tend to see smaller convention bounces.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Impact, Lack of a convention bounce
Another was that the conventions, having been scaled-back due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were seen as less likely to generate as much attention as past conventions had, particularly due to the decrease in television viewership . Another was that the electorate was already strongly opinionated on the candidates, with more voters holding a strong opinion on Trump than any incumbent since at least 1980, and more voters holding a strong opinion on Biden than any challenger to an incumbent since at least 1980. Races where voters hold strong opinions on the candidates tend to see smaller convention bounces. Strong partisanship among the electorate was another cited factor.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Impact, Lack of a convention bounce
The Democrats were also seen as having factors which the Republican convention did not that might hamper its chances at a convention bump. One was the fact that the Republicans would hold their convention immediately following them. Additionally, the fact that Biden already had a large lead among independents heading into the convention possibly made Biden particularly unlikely to experience a convention bounce, as some speculated that Biden may have already been near his likely ceiling of support.


2020 Democratic National Convention, Impact, Lack of a convention bounce
While his electoral poll numbers may not have received a bounce, some polling showed Biden to have received a boost in favorability ratings.


2020 Democratic Party (HK) leadership election
The Democratic Party leadership election was held on 6 December 2020 for the 14th Central Committee of the Democratic Party in Hong Kong, including chairperson and two vice-chairperson posts.


2020 Democratic Party (HK) leadership election
Incumbent vice-chairman Lo Kin-hei was elected as chairman uncontested with 231 confidence votes, while former member of Legislative Council Lam Cheuk-ting and Kwun Tong District Councillor Edith Leung beat Shatin District Councillor Sin Cheuk-nam to become new vice-chairpersons.


2020 Democratic Party (HK) leadership election, Electoral method
The Central Committee was elected by the party congress. All public office holders, including the members of the Legislative Council and District Councils, are eligible to vote in the party congress. The eligibility of members electing a delegate who holds one vote in the congress was 5 members. Candidate also needs a majority in order to claim victory.


2020 Democratic Party (HK) leadership election, Overview
Lo Kin-hei, the incumbent vice-chairman of the party, was the only candidate for chairmanship election. Without other contestants, Lo was elected with an overwhelming of 231 votes, showing the party was highly confident with the new chairman. Lo also became the youngest party chairperson and the first without prior experience in the Legislative Council.


2020 Democratic Party (HK) leadership election, Overview
Election for vice-chairpersons was comparatively fierce with three candidates thriving for two seats. The three candidates were: Edith Leung from the young turks faction of the party; Lam Cheuk-ting, who just resigned from the Legislative Council; Sin Cheuk-nam, seen as Lam's apprentice.


2020 Democratic Party (HK) leadership election, Overview
The average age for new Central Committee is also lower. Around 10 candidates among the 27 were running for the committee for the first time. Senior party figures including ex-chairman Lee Wing-tat and former Legislative Council member Helena Wong were not on the candidate list.


2020 Democratic Party (HK) leadership election, Results
The elected members of the 14th Central Committee are listed as following:


2020 Democratic Party of Korea leadership election
The Democratic Party of Korea held a leadership election on 29 August 2020. It was the second leadership election since the inauguration of President Moon Jae-in. Although elected leader serves for the fixed two-year term, newly elected leader Lee Nak-yon is unlikely to serve for two years due to his presumptive presidential campaign in 2022.


2020 Democratic Party of Korea leadership election, Background, Landslide victory of 2020 General Election
In 2020 South Korean General Election, The Democrats, led by Lee Hae-chan, won the majority in the National Assembly by landslide. The Democratic Party and its affiliate Party, Platform Party, won 180 seats (60%) in 300-seat Assembly. It was the biggest majority since the democratization of South Korea after the June Struggle in 1987. It was an endorsement of President Moon Jae-in's COVID-19 response that got a good reputation worldwide.


2020 Democratic Party of Korea leadership election, Background, Coronavirus
Due to the continued impact of COVID-19 pandemic, the Democratic Party National Convention Preparatory Committee decided to hold a national convention online to elect its leadership. The Democratic Party originally planned an event in Jamsil Olympic Stadium in which about 600 members of the Central Committee attended, but it changed to online event due to concerns about second wave of COVID-19. Eventually, the party decided to allow only about 50 candidates and staffs at the Democratic Party's headquarter and broadcast the results of the election and the acceptance speech on the Internet on 29 August 2020.


2020 Democratic Party of Korea leadership election, Candidates, Candidates for Supreme Council, Eliminated
In the election of the Supreme Council, 10 people were running, so the party have to eliminate 2 candidates and held the final election with the remaining 8 candidates according to the rules. On 24 July 2020, the Democratic Party held a caucus for the election of the party's Supreme Council by on-site and online voting. About 660 members of the Central Committee participated in the vote. As a result of the vote, Lee Won-wook, Noh Woong-rae, Kim Jong-min, So Byeong-hoon, Shin Dong-kun, Han Byung-do, Yang Hyang-ja, and Yeom Tae-yeong were nominated.


2020 Democratic Party of Korea leadership election, Candidates, Candidates for Supreme Council, Eliminated
However, The ranking and number of votes for each candidate were not released. Of the eight nominated candidates, five are finally elected through elections held at the National Assembly on August 29. In addition, under the party's rule, at least one elected member of the Supreme Council shall be women. Yang Hyang-ja was the only remaining female candidate, so she was virtually elected as the Supreme Council member.


2020 Democratic Party of Korea leadership election, Results
The ratio of the results by sector was 45% for delegates, 40% for party members, 10% for opinion poll and 5% for non-voting members poll.


2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates
Candidates associated with the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries for the 2020 United States presidential election:


2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates, Major candidates
Candidates who are on the ballot in a minimum of fifteen states. As of June 8, 2020,  former Vice President Joe Biden became the presumptive presidential nominee by amassing enough delegates to secure the nomination. The nomination was made official at the 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.


2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates, Major candidates, Withdrew during the primaries
Candidates who were major candidates who withdrew or suspended their campaigns after the Iowa caucuses or succeeding primary elections.


2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates, Major candidates, Withdrew during the primaries
Member of the Honolulu City Council (2011–2012)Member of the Hawaii House of Representatives (2002–2004)


2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates, Major candidates, Withdrew before Iowa caucuses but remained on ballots
Candidates withdrew too late to remove their names from several state ballots and remained on at least two:


2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates, Major candidates, Withdrew without appearing on primary ballots
Candidates who were major candidates who withdrew or suspended their campaigns before the 2020 Democratic primary elections began and are not on the ballot for the presidential primaries anywhere.


2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates, Other candidates, On the ballot in at least one state
There are over 1,200 who have filed with the FEC declaring that they are candidates; however, very few actually made the effort to get their names on the ballot anywhere. The following have:


2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates, Other candidates, On the ballot in at least one state
‡Roque De La Fuente III is the son of perennial candidate Rocky De La Fuente and is not the same individual.


2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates, Other candidates, Not on the ballot anywhere
Individuals who did not meet the criteria to become major candidates have either formally terminated their campaigns or did not attempt to get on the ballot in a single contest:


2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates, Declined to be candidates
These individuals had been the subject of presidential speculation, but have publicly denied or recanted interest in running for president.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates
Debates took place among candidates in the campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for the president of the United States in the 2020 presidential election.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates
There were a total of 29 major Democratic candidates. Of these, 23 candidates participated in at least one debate. Only Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders participated in all the debates; Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Elizabeth Warren participated in all but one debate.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Overview, Schedule
In December 2018, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced the schedule for 12 official DNC-sanctioned debates, set to begin in June 2019, with six debates in 2019 and the remaining six during the first four months of 2020. Candidates are allowed to participate in forums featuring multiple other candidates as long as only one candidate appears on stage at a time; if candidates participate in any unsanctioned debate with other presidential candidates, they will lose their invitation to the next DNC-sanctioned debate.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Overview, Schedule
The DNC also announced that it would not partner with Fox News as a media sponsor for any debates. Fox News had last held a Democratic debate in 2003. All media sponsors selected to host a debate will as a new rule be required to appoint at least one female moderator for each debate, to ensure there will not be a gender-skewed treatment of the candidates and debate topics.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Overview, Participation
The following is a table of participating candidates in each debate:


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Overview, Participation
P  Present A  Absent I  Invited N  Not invited Out  Not yet entered race W  Withdrawn


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, First debates (June 26–27, 2019), Qualification
To qualify for the first debates, entrants had to, at a minimum, achieve one of the two criteria listed. If this had resulted in more than 20 qualified candidates, the two criteria would have been evaluated in combination per an outlined set of tiebreaking rules, but since 20 candidates qualified, no tiebreaker was necessary. The deadline for candidates to meet either of the below criteria was June 12.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, First debates (June 26–27, 2019), Summary
The Democratic Party's first presidential debates ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election were held in two groups on June 26 and 27, 2019, in Miami, Florida.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, First debates (June 26–27, 2019), Summary
Starting at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, they aired on NBC and were broadcast on radio by Westwood One. Lester Holt was the lead moderator of the debates, joined by Savannah Guthrie, Chuck Todd, Rachel Maddow, and José Díaz-Balart.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, First debates (June 26–27, 2019), Summary
The DNC drew lots among the 20 qualified candidates for the first debate to determine whether they should debate on the first night (June 26) or second night (June 27) at the NBC News headquarters (30 Rockefeller Plaza) in New York City on June 14. The qualified candidates or their representatives were present and involved at the drawing event, which was not televised.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, First debates (June 26–27, 2019), Summary
The debates took place at the Arsht Center in Miami, Florida. The first night of the debate was marked by a noted dust-up between O'Rourke and Castro on the subject of immigration, which Castro was widely perceived to have won, while Warren met expectations as a top-tier candidate. In addition, Booker and Klobuchar each had their moment in the spotlight, Klobuchar in particular being noted for her one-liners, one of which was about acknowledging that, for the first time in U.S. history, there were at least three women on stage at a presidential debate.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, First debates (June 26–27, 2019), Summary
Gabbard took on Ryan over continuing the US presence in Afghanistan. Booker, Castro, and O'Rourke all spoke Spanish at different times during the debate, which received mixed reception and was met with jokes from second-night competitors Williamson and Yang on Twitter. On night two, Harris and Biden clashed over Biden's past comments about working with segregationist senators and his stance on desegregation busing. The second night was also notable for the performance of Williamson, who received significant attention for comments she made during the debate perceived as strange, including a reference to the Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, First debates (June 26–27, 2019), Summary
Before these debates, no major party had ever seen more than one female candidate on a presidential debate stage.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Second debates (July 30–31, 2019), Qualification
The criteria for qualifying for the second debates were the same as for the first debates. To qualify for the second debates, debate entrants had to, at minimum, comply with one of the two below listed criteria. Mike Gravel was not invited to the debates since he only met the donor threshold, which was given a lesser weight than the polling threshold. The deadline for candidates to meet either of the below criteria was July 16.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Second debates (July 30–31, 2019), Summary
The Democratic Party's second presidential debates ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election were held on July 30 and 31, 2019, in Detroit, Michigan.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Second debates (July 30–31, 2019), Summary
Starting at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, they aired on CNN and were broadcast on radio by Westwood One. Jake Tapper was the lead moderator of the debates, joined by Dana Bash and Don Lemon.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Second debates (July 30–31, 2019), Summary
The drawing of lots among the 20 invited candidates to determine when they will debate was televised in prime time on July 18. There were three tiers of candidates that were split between two nights, as opposed to the two tiers used in the first debates.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Second debates (July 30–31, 2019), Summary
In total, 21 candidates qualified for the second debate. The 14 candidates who met both criteria (Biden, Sanders, Warren, Harris, Buttigieg, O'Rourke, Booker, Klobuchar, Castro, Yang, Gabbard, Gillibrand, Inslee, and Williamson) and the six candidates who met the polling criterion only (Ryan, Hickenlooper, Delaney, de Blasio, Bennet, and Bullock) were invited to participate in the debate. Gravel, the one candidate to qualify by the donor criterion only, was not invited because of the 20-candidate limit and the polling criterion's precedence over the donor criterion as mandated by the DNC. The set of participants for the second debate was identical to the first debates with one exception: Bullock replaced Swalwell, who suspended his campaign between the first and second debates.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Second debates (July 30–31, 2019), Summary
The debate on July 30 featured Bullock, Buttigieg, Delaney, Hickenlooper, Klobuchar, O'Rourke, Ryan, Sanders, Warren and Williamson, while the debate on July 31 featured Bennet, Biden, Booker, Castro, de Blasio, Gabbard, Gillibrand, Harris, Inslee and Yang. Both debates took place at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Second debates (July 30–31, 2019), Summary
The overarching theme on the first night was a clash between moderates and progressives on a variety of issues, ranging from Medicare for All to electability. CNN received criticism for allegedly inciting conflicts between candidates and making questions from Republican talking points, as well as enforcing the time limits too strictly. The second night saw significant discussion centered on candidates' differing health care plans. Additionally, Gabbard went on the offensive against Harris.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Second debates (July 30–31, 2019), Participation
Each of the first two debates took place during two consecutive nights, with a maximum of 10 candidates per night. The DNC, at a public event before each debate, drew lots among the qualified candidates to determine whether they shall debate on the first or second night. This drawing procedure was designed to avoid the appearance of a "kiddie table" debate where the lowest polling candidates were grouped together with no leading candidates, which happened during the 2016 Republican Party presidential debates.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Third debate (September 12, 2019), Qualification
The third debate took place at the Health and Physical Education Arena on the campus of Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas. For participation in the third debate, candidates were required to meet both polling and fundraising criteria by August 28 (in comparison to the first and second debates, where only one criterion was necessary). Qualifying polls had to be released between June 28 and August 28. Five candidates (Gravel, Hickenlooper, Inslee, Moulton, and Gillibrand) suspended their campaigns between the second and third debates.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Third debate (September 12, 2019), Qualification
On August 23, the Gabbard campaign criticized the DNC's purported lack of transparency in the process of selecting organizations/institutions to sponsor polls and how better-ranked polls were excluded. The campaign also highlighted the stark reduction in poll frequency, especially in early primary states, after the second debate compared to after the first debate and how they believed that that was "particularly harmful" to candidates with lower name recognition. The campaigns of Marianne Williamson, Tom Steyer, and Michael Bennet also requested that the DNC increase the number of certified polls by expanding the list of certified poll sponsoring organizations.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Third debate (September 12, 2019), Summary
The Democratic Party's third presidential debate ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election took place on September 12, 2019 in Houston, Texas.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Third debate (September 12, 2019), Summary
It aired on ABC News and Univision. George Stephanopoulos was the lead moderator of the debate, joined by David Muir, Linsey Davis, and Jorge Ramos.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Third debate (September 12, 2019), Summary
The candidates who qualified for the third debate were Biden, Booker, Buttigieg, Castro, Harris, Klobuchar, O'Rourke, Sanders, Warren, and Yang.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Fourth debate (October 15, 2019), Qualification
A memo released by the DNC on August 5 indicated that the qualification period for the fourth debate in October started on June 28, which was the same day that qualification began for the third debate (in effect allowing all candidates who qualified for the third debate to automatically qualify for the fourth debate). This gave candidates who did not qualify for the September debate more time to qualify for the October debate. Biden, Booker, Buttigieg, Castro, Harris, Klobuchar, O'Rourke, Sanders, Warren, and Yang qualified before August 22, while Steyer and Gabbard qualified on September 8 and September 24 respectively. The qualification deadline for the fourth debate was October 1, 2019. One candidate (de Blasio) suspended his campaign between the third and fourth debates.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Fourth debate (October 15, 2019), Summary
The Democratic Party's fourth presidential debate was held on Tuesday October 15, 2019 in Westerville, Ohio, from 8 to 11 p.m. EDT. On September 27, the DNC announced that the debate would include all 12 candidates on one night, although some had assumed it would take place on two nights since it had more than 10 participants. From left to right, the candidates were: Gabbard (who missed the previous debate), Steyer (in his first debate), Booker, Harris, Sanders, Biden and Warren (who shared center stage), Buttigieg, Yang, O'Rourke, Klobuchar, and Castro. Podium order for the debate was determined based on an average of the 10 most recently released qualifying polls. CNN anchors Erin Burnett and Anderson Cooper and New York Times national editor Marc Lacey served as the debate moderators.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Fourth debate (October 15, 2019), Summary
The debate aired exclusively on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español, and was streamed on CNN.com's homepage and NYTimes.com's homepage. The debate also streamed live on the following Facebook Pages: CNN, CNN International, CNN Politics, CNN Replay, AC360 and Erin Burnett OutFront.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Fourth debate (October 15, 2019), Summary
In addition, the debate was available across mobile devices via CNN's and New York Times' apps for iOS and Android, via CNNgo apps for Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast and Android TV, SiriusXM Channels 116, 454 and 795, the Westwood One Radio Network and National Public Radio.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Fourth debate (October 15, 2019), Summary
The Ohio debate featured 12 candidates, setting a record for the highest number of candidates in one presidential debate.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Fifth debate (November 20, 2019), Qualification
A memo released by the DNC on September 23 indicated that the qualification period for the November debate started on September 13, and ended on November 13. To qualify in terms of polling, candidates needed to reach three percent or more in four polls approved by the DNC. Alternatively, reaching five percent or more in two DNC-approved polls conducted in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina was also accepted as meeting the polling threshold. To qualify in terms of donors, candidates needed to receive donations from 165,000 unique donors with 600 unique donors in 20 different states, territories or the District of Columbia. Three candidates (Messam, O'Rourke, and Ryan) suspended their campaigns between the fourth and fifth debates.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Fifth debate (November 20, 2019), Summary
The Democratic Party's fifth presidential debate was held on November 20, 2019 from 9 to 11:20 p.m. ET, at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It was moderated by Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell, Kristen Welker and Ashley Parker.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Fifth debate (November 20, 2019), Summary
The candidates who qualified were Biden, Booker, Buttigieg, Gabbard, Harris, Klobuchar, Sanders, Steyer, Warren and Yang.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Sixth debate (December 19, 2019), Qualification
A memo released by the DNC on October 25 indicated that the qualification period for the December debate started on October 16, and ended on December 12. To qualify in terms of polling, candidates had to reach four percent or more in four polls approved by the DNC. Alternatively, reaching six percent or more in two DNC-approved polls conducted in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, or South Carolina was also accepted as meeting the polling threshold. To qualify in terms of donors, candidates had to receive donations from 200,000 unique donors with 800 unique donors in 20 different states, territories or the District of Columbia.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Sixth debate (December 19, 2019), Summary
The Democratic Party's sixth presidential debate was held on December 19, 2019 at 8 p.m. ET at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California, and was hosted by PBS NewsHour and Politico. It was initially set to be held at the University of California, Los Angeles. However, the DNC announced on November 6 that UCLA was no longer hosting the debate due to a labor dispute. Three candidates (Sestak, Bullock and Harris) suspended their campaigns between the fifth and sixth Democratic debates; Harris would have qualified for the sixth debate had her campaign continued.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Sixth debate (December 19, 2019), Summary
Gabbard, a few days before failing to qualify for the debate, announced on December 9 that she would not participate regardless of whether she qualifies.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Sixth debate (December 19, 2019), Summary
The candidates who qualified were Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, Steyer, Warren and Yang. Highlights included: an exchange between Buttigieg, Warren, and Sanders about campaign financing (including mention of a Buttigieg fundraiser in a Napa Valley wine cave), differences between Klobuchar and Buttigieg on the issue of experience, and a discussion about health care between Sanders and Biden. The candidates were in agreement about the impeachment of Donald Trump, which had been approved by the House of Representatives the day before.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Sixth debate (December 19, 2019), Summary
Sanders and Klobuchar had a disagreement about the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, with the former opposed to and the latter in favor of ratification. Yang, the only candidate of color, expressed lament that Kamala Harris and Cory Booker were absent, and declared that his universal-basic-income proposal would diversify the field. Sanders, Biden, and Warren parried a question about age. Steyer stated that climate change would be his top priority as president, and the issue was discussed at length by all the candidates.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2019, Sixth debate (December 19, 2019), Summary
The Chinese government censored a live feed of the debate after moderator Judy Woodruff asked Pete Buttigieg if the U.S. should boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing over China's alleged human rights abuses of Uyghur citizens.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Seventh debate (January 14, 2020), Qualification
A memo released by the DNC on December 20 indicated that the qualification period for the January debate started on November 14, 2019, and ended on January 10, 2020. A candidate needed to meet both polling and donor criteria. Candidates had to reach 5% or more in four polls approved by the DNC, or 7% or more in two DNC-approved polls conducted in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, or South Carolina. In addition, candidates must have received donations from 225,000 unique donors, including 1,000 unique donors in 20 different states, territories or the District of Columbia.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Seventh debate (January 14, 2020), Qualification
The candidates who qualified were Biden, Buttigieg,  Klobuchar, Sanders, Steyer and Warren. This debate stage featured all of the candidates from the sixth debate except for Yang. Steyer qualified with 2 early-state polls on the penultimate day to qualify, while the other five all qualified much earlier. Yang and Booker met the fundraising criterion but failed to meet the polling criteria. Bloomberg met polling criteria but not the fundraising criterion, as he was not then asking for donations. Three candidates (Castro, Williamson and Booker) suspended their campaigns between the sixth and seventh debates, with Booker dropping out two days after the qualifying candidates were announced.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Seventh debate (January 14, 2020), Summary
The Democratic Party's seventh presidential debate was held from 8 to 10:15 p.m. CT on Tuesday, January 14, 2020, at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. It was hosted by CNN and The Des Moines Register. Several sources noted an exchange between Warren and Sanders. They discussed Warren's accusation that Sanders told her privately that women could not successfully win the presidency. Sanders flatly denied this accusation and pointed to his deference to Warren before running for president in 2016. Warren insisted that Sanders had said women could not win and pointed out that the women on stage had not lost any election, while the men on stage had lost 10 elections combined.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Seventh debate (January 14, 2020), Summary
At the end of the debate when candidates were shaking hands with one another, Warren was seen declining a handshake from Bernie Sanders; the two candidates then appeared to argue with each other. It was later revealed that Warren commented to Sanders, "I think you called me a liar on national TV." Sanders replied, "Let's not do it right now. You want to have that discussion, we'll have that discussion. You called me a liar."


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Eighth debate (February 7, 2020), Qualification
The qualifications for the eighth debate were similar to those for the January debate (5% nationally/early states, or 7% in early states, this time excluding Iowa) except for the added provision that all candidates who gained at least one pledged delegate in the Iowa caucus (which is expected to apply only to candidates supported by at least 15% of the final votes statewide or in a district) would also automatically qualify for the debate. Candidates had until February 6 to qualify.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Eighth debate (February 7, 2020), Qualification
The candidates who qualified included Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, Steyer, Warren, and Yang.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Eighth debate (February 7, 2020), Qualification
One candidate (Delaney) suspended his campaign between the seventh and eighth debates.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Eighth debate (February 7, 2020), Summary
The Democratic Party's eighth presidential debate was held from 8–10:30 p.m. ET on Friday, February 7, 2020, at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. It was hosted by ABC's New Hampshire affiliate WMUR-TV and Apple News.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Eighth debate (February 7, 2020), Summary
Emerging as frontrunners after the Iowa caucuses, Buttigieg and Sanders came under attack by other candidates. Klobuchar questioned Buttigieg on his lack of political experience, whereas Biden pressed Sanders to clarify how he would fund Medicare For All and brought up his past stances on gun control, citing Sanders's votes against the Brady Bill in the 1990s. Moderator Linsey Davis also inquired Buttigieg on the rise in marijuana-related incarcerations of African Americans in South Bend during his tenure as mayor, which he attributed to "systemic racism".


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Eighth debate (February 7, 2020), Summary
Candidates also voiced praise for Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who was the only Republican senator to vote against Donald Trump's acquittal in his Senate impeachment trial two days earlier, and  Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who was fired from the National Security Council by Trump after serving as a key witness on the trial. On the topic of campaign finance, Elizabeth Warren stated that political action committees had assisted all of the non-billionaire candidates except for Amy Klobuchar and herself. Another prominent issue discussed in the debate was abortion, with several candidates pledging to only support Supreme Court nominees who will uphold abortion rights and pushed for the codification of Roe v. Wade.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Ninth debate (February 19, 2020), Qualification
The DNC announced on January 31 that it was eliminating the donor threshold as a debate qualification requirement for any debate following the New Hampshire debate on February 7, which prompted criticism from several candidates as it was perceived to accommodate Bloomberg, who is not accepting individual donations. The polling thresholds were drastically increased since the last debate, with candidates now having to reach 10% in DNC-approved national polls or 12% in early state polls conducted in Nevada and South Carolina. Candidates who won at least one pledged delegate in the Iowa caucuses or New Hampshire primary were automatically qualified for the debate. Candidates had until February 18 to qualify.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Ninth debate (February 19, 2020), Qualification
The candidates who qualified included Biden, Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, and Warren. Three candidates (Yang, Bennet, and Patrick) suspended their campaigns between the eighth and ninth debates.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Ninth debate (February 19, 2020), Summary
The Democratic Party's ninth presidential debate was held from 6–8 p.m. PST on Wednesday, February 19, 2020, at Paris Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada. It was hosted by NBC News and MSNBC, in partnership with The Nevada Independent.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Ninth debate (February 19, 2020), Summary
Bloomberg, who made his debate stage debut after qualifying only a day prior, was widely regarded by multiple news outlets as having performed poorly. Bloomberg's political and personal record came under heavy scrutiny by other candidates, including his previous support of stop-and-frisk policies during his tenure as mayor of New York City. The controversial program, which disproportionately targeted racial minorities, was referred to by Biden as "abhorrent" and "a violation of every right people have". Warren reprimanded Bloomberg for his recently resurfaced derogatory comments on women and called for him to rescind the non-disclosure agreements he signed with several of his company's former female employees over sexual harassment and workplace discrimination, accusing Bloomberg of attempting to "muzzle" them.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Ninth debate (February 19, 2020), Summary
Sanders's electability was also brought up in the debate, when moderator Lester Holt mentioned the findings of a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll which showed that two thirds of American voters would not be comfortable with a socialist presidential candidate; Sanders retorted by touting his wide lead over other candidates in the same poll. Bloomberg criticized Sanders's advocacy of democratic socialism by comparing it to communism, which Sanders dismissed as a "cheap shot," arguing that his economic policies were closer to Nordic social democracy. Buttigieg, meanwhile, branded both Sanders and Bloomberg as polarizing figures who would further divide the party if one of them were to receive the nomination.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Ninth debate (February 19, 2020), Summary
Healthcare was another issue discussed by the candidates, in light of the Culinary Workers Union's recent criticism that Sanders's Medicare for All policy would replace their existing union healthcare in favor of a government plan. In response, Sanders defended his plan by saying that it would expand, rather than take away, healthcare benefits for union members. Warren attacked Buttigieg and Klobuchar on their more moderate healthcare plans, likening their lack of details to a "PowerPoint" presentation and "Post-it Note" respectively. On the other hand, Klobuchar argued that Sanders's Medicare for All proposal would be too radical to garner enough support in the Senate, whereas Buttigieg expressed disapproval at the idea of letting the government decide what healthcare plan is best for unions, calling it "condescension and arrogance".


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Ninth debate (February 19, 2020), Summary
The televised debate drew a combined 19.7 million viewers on NBC and MSNBC, making it the most-watched Democratic primary debate of all time.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Tenth debate (February 25, 2020), Qualification
The qualification criteria remained largely unchanged from the last debate, with candidates having to either garner at least 10% support in DNC-approved national polls or 12% in early state polls conducted in the remaining state of South Carolina in order to meet the polling threshold. Candidates could also qualify via the delegate threshold by winning at least one pledged delegate in Iowa, New Hampshire or Nevada. The qualification deadline for the debate was February 24.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Tenth debate (February 25, 2020), Qualification
All candidates still in the race at the time (Biden, Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, Steyer and Warren), except for Gabbard, qualified for the debate.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Tenth debate (February 25, 2020), Summary
The Democratic Party's tenth presidential debate was held from 8–10 p.m. ET on Tuesday, February 25, 2020, at the Gaillard Center in Charleston, South Carolina. It was hosted by CBS News and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute in partnership with Twitter, and aired on CBS and BET.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Tenth debate (February 25, 2020), Summary
Following his landslide victory in Nevada the prior week, Sanders was targeted by several other candidates who attempted to dampen his momentum going into the upcoming South Carolina and Super Tuesday primaries. Biden hit Sanders on the issue of gun control by drawing a contrast between Sanders's voting record and his own, noting that he was a consistent supporter of more stringent gun regulations throughout his Senate career.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Tenth debate (February 25, 2020), Summary
Biden highlighted his role in passing legislation to expand universal background checks and extend waiting periods for purchasing guns, while pointing out that Sanders previously had a relatively moderate stance on gun control, voting against the Brady Bill and in favor of the PLCAA during his tenure as a congressman. However, his claim that "150 million people have been killed since 2007" by guns was fact-checked by CNN as being incorrect, with a Biden campaign spokesperson suggesting that he might have intended to say 150,000. Sanders expressed regret at his decisions, admitting that he has "cast thousands of votes, including bad votes", and noted that he currently has a D-minus rating from the National Rifle Association.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Tenth debate (February 25, 2020), Summary
Foreign policy was extensively discussed by the candidates, which took up about 25 minutes of the debate. Sanders and Bloomberg clashed over past comments they have made regarding foreign authoritarian leaders; Bloomberg emphasized recent allegations that Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to prop up the Sanders campaign. When Sanders's praise for Fidel Castro's literacy programs in Cuba on 60 Minutes was brought up by Bloomberg, Sanders responded by calling out Bloomberg's refusal to call China's paramount leader Xi Jinping a dictator in an interview, and pointed out that Barack Obama had also previously praised Cuba's healthcare and education. This provoked a reaction from Biden, who said that while Obama did acknowledge Cuba's progress in increasing life expectancy during a 2016 town hall, he did not "in any way suggest that there was anything positive about the Cuban government" and proceeded to condemn the dictatorial regime.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Tenth debate (February 25, 2020), Summary
The debate moderators received staunch criticism for focusing too much on narrowly-focused policy issues, failure to keep control of the candidates' speaking times, allowing candidates to interrupt other candidates during their allotted speaking times, applying the debate rules regarding giving candidates time to respond to personal attacks in a non-equitable way, and for permitting the audience to boo and jeer certain candidates without consequence. Both Biden and Sanders criticized the moderators on stage for failing to enforce the debate rules.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Tenth debate (February 25, 2020), Summary
The crowd's negative reception of Sanders led to the proliferation of rumors on social media that the debate audience had been "stacked against" him, pointing to the high entry costs which ranged from $1,750 to $3,200 as evidence. The Democratic National Committee has denied this claim, explaining that the debate tickets were allocated among political organizations (DNC, CBCI and SCDP) and media entities (CBS and Twitter) hosting the debate as well as participating candidates' campaigns, with each campaign being given an equal quota. Tickets were guaranteed to sponsors, and the ticket costs referred to the cost of sponsorship.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Eleventh debate (March 15, 2020)
CNN, Univision, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus  hosted the eleventh debate in Washington, DC from 8 P.M. to 10 P.M. Eastern Time.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Eleventh debate (March 15, 2020)
Five candidates (Steyer, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Bloomberg, and Warren) suspended their campaigns between the tenth and eleventh debates. On March 6, the DNC announced that qualification would be based on "earning at least 20 percent of delegates awarded by March 15", as calculated by the Associated Press or CNN.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Eleventh debate (March 15, 2020)
The Democratic National Committee announced on March 10 that the debate would no longer allow a live audience, nor would press (beyond CNN and Univision) be allowed to attend, due to fears about the spread of the coronavirus.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Eleventh debate (March 15, 2020)
On March 12, the Democratic National Committee announced that the March 15 debate, originally scheduled to take place at the Arizona Federal Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona, would instead be held at CNN's studio in Washington, DC. It also announced that Jorge Ramos was no longer a moderator because he had contact with a person with coronavirus.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Eleventh debate (March 15, 2020), Summary
The debate was primarily focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, which was discussed for 17 minutes and 45 seconds, with Biden claiming the Trump administration rejected test kits from the WHO. Both candidates also compared the pandemic to that of the Ebola epidemic.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Cancelled twelfth debate
In an interview with Politico regarding the March 15 debate, a DNC official confirmed a twelfth debate was still being planned. Two candidates (Gabbard and Sanders) suspended their campaigns between the eleventh and twelfth debates, leaving Biden as the only remaining major candidate. Prior to suspending his campaign, Sanders stated that he planned to participate in the debate. Biden dismissed the idea, however:


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Cancelled twelfth debate
"My focus is just dealing with this crisis right now. I haven’t thought about any more debates. I think we’ve had enough debates. I think we should get on with this."


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Cancelled twelfth debate
It is likely that the debate would have been hosted in an East Coast location, such as New York City.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Debates in 2020, Cancelled twelfth debate
On April 8, 2020, Sanders dropped out of the Democratic primary, leaving Joe Biden as the presumptive Democratic nominee. In early June 2020, Biden passed the threshold of 1,991 delegates to gain the nomination at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Climate change debate
On April 22, 2019, Jay Inslee proposed that the DNC dedicate one of its presidential debates to climate change, giving candidates a chance to elaborate in full detail on how they intend to implement climate action and achieve the goals presented by the Green New Deal (a progressive climate resolution proposed by Democratic members of the House of Representatives).


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Climate change debate
Recent polls of both Democratic voters and the electorate in general had identified this topic to be of the highest importance (for example, a CNN poll found 80% of Democrats wanted presidential candidates to make climate change a top priority, and a Morning Consult poll of registered voters nationwide found that 63% said it's either important or a top priority for Congress to pass a bill to address climate change).


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Climate change debate
Despite support from seven other candidates (Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Julian Castro, Michael Bennet, John Delaney and Seth Moulton), several progressive and environmental groups (Sierra Club, CREDO Action, Sunrise Movement, Friends of the Earth Action, Public Citizen, 350 Action, MoveOn, Youth Climate Strike), at least two dozen Democratic lawmakers from the House and Senate, and over 52,000 signatories of a petition, the DNC turned down the idea of limiting some of their debates to only one debate topic. On June 29, 2019, however, the DNC referred to a committee a proposal "calling for an official debate on climate change". On August 22, the resolutions committee voted to reject the proposal.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Steve Bullock's qualification for first debate
After Steve Bullock received 1% in an open-ended ABC News/The Washington Post poll, controversy arose as the DNC's official qualification rules, published on February 14 and updated on May 9, did not state whether open-ended polls would count towards qualification. The DNC later stated during rule guidance given on June 10 and 11, that "polls based on open-ended questions will not be considered". This additional rule was initially orally communicated between DNC chairman Tom Perez and the Bullock campaign in March 2019, and was only publicly confirmed via a statement to a Politico reporter on June 6, but was never confirmed in writing by any primary DNC sources ahead of the qualification deadline.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Steve Bullock's qualification for first debate
On June 12, the Bullock campaign wrote a certification letter to the DNC claiming that Bullock qualified for participation in the first debate through the polling criteria (as they believed the open-ended poll from ABC News/The Washington Post should be counted as Bullock's third qualifying poll, according to the official published rules). If Bullock had been deemed a qualifying candidate by the DNC, then 21 total candidates would have qualified by the polling criteria. However, the DNC explicitly limited the debate stage to 20 candidates, so that would have triggered tiebreak rules.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Steve Bullock's qualification for first debate
Bullock and Eric Swalwell were tied for the 20th spot with each candidate having 1% polling averages and three qualifying polls with exactly 1% support. In that scenario, the DNC would have had to accept inviting 21 candidates, or invent a supplementing final tiebreak rule (for example, drawing lots for the last spot, or deciding the tie by their number of unique donors). However, Bullock's certification letter was rejected and he failed to qualify for the first debate, though he qualified for the second debate.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Debate protests, Second debate protest
On the second night of the second debate, protesters motivated by the death of Eric Garner and the continued employment of Staten Island police officer Daniel Pantaleo shouted during Bill de Blasio's opening remarks, and then entirely halted Cory Booker's, disrupting the debate for nearly 30 seconds.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Debate protests, Third debate protest
During the closing statements for the third debate, in which candidates were asked to recall moments of resilience after a professional setback, protesters interrupted Joe Biden for approximately two minutes. According to Jess Davidson, they shouted "we are DACA recipients; our lives are at risk!" The Trump campaign accused the protesters of having insensitive timing.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Debate protests, Tenth debate protest
Some people in the audience of the tenth debate booed candidates.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Tulsi Gabbard disputes with DNC, Pollster selection and poll frequency
On August 23, Gabbard's campaign protested the failure of the DNC to release "their criteria for selecting the 16 polling organizations they deem 'certified'" for qualifying candidates for the third debate.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Tulsi Gabbard disputes with DNC, Pollster selection and poll frequency
In the campaign's statement, they listed 26 polls in which Gabbard reached the 2% threshold and alleged that certain "DNC-certified" polls were rated lower than non-certified polls by organizations such as the American Research Group and FiveThirtyEight, and questioned why only four qualifying polls were released following the second debate, while fourteen were released following the first debate; and why only two polls were released in the first two weeks after the second debate while six polls were released in the first two weeks after the first debate.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Tulsi Gabbard disputes with DNC, Pollster selection and poll frequency
The campaign further argued that the lack of polling was "particularly harmful to candidates with lower name-recognition." They called on the DNC to revise the set of polls it considers for qualifying and also asked them "to hold true to their promise and make adjustments to the process now to ensure transparency and fairness."


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Tulsi Gabbard disputes with DNC, Pollster selection and poll frequency
Several other campaigns, including those of Michael Bennet, Tom Steyer, and Marianne Williamson also criticized the unclear criteria, and overall lack, of qualifying polls.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Tulsi Gabbard disputes with DNC, Qualifying polls for October debate
On September 8, a The Washington Post/ABC News poll was released. An initial report from ABC claimed that Gabbard had not received the 2% necessary for the poll to count as a qualifying poll, but the Gabbard campaign announced that she had indeed received the 2% necessary for the poll to count as a qualifying poll, citing The Washington Post figures directly. To further complicate matters, FiveThirtyEight claimed that it had received confirmation from the DNC that the poll did not count for Gabbard but the Gabbard campaign countered by stating that no official DNC ruling had been delivered.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Tulsi Gabbard disputes with DNC, Qualifying polls for October debate
The confusion stemmed from the fact that the poll data was presented with two sets of results: one of all adults, and one of registered voters. Gabbard reached 1% among all adults and 2% among registered voters. An approved poll conducted on July 1 was conducted similarly, but it is unclear which category was used for the qualification for the debates, as no candidate had 2% in one category and 1% in the other. Gabbard later reached 2% in two other qualifying polls, allowing her to qualify for the fourth debate.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Tulsi Gabbard disputes with DNC, Threatened boycotts
On October 10, Gabbard threatened to boycott the fourth debate, saying that she believed the DNC and the media were rigging the election. On October 14, Gabbard announced that she would be attending the debate. On December 9, Gabbard announced that she would boycott the sixth debate, and that instead she would be prioritizing campaigning in New Hampshire and South Carolina. She failed to qualify for the sixth debate by the deadline, December 12.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Tulsi Gabbard disputes with DNC, Eleventh debate qualification
On March 3, as Super Tuesday results were announced, DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa tweeted that the qualification threshold would likely increase, giving the reason that almost 2,000 delegates would have been allocated by the time of the debate. This tweet was sent after Gabbard apparently received a delegate and would qualify for the March debate, per the previous three debates' threshold of one delegate. She later gained another delegate. On March 6, the DNC confirmed that the single qualification for entry to the eleventh debate would be for a candidate to have earned at least 20 percent of awarded delegates by March 15. The threshold was impossible for her to meet to qualify for the eleventh debate.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Andrew Yang disputes, Microphone complaints in first debate
Yang, along with Marianne Williamson and Eric Swalwell, complained of microphone problems not allowing them to speak unless called upon when other candidates seemed to be able to freely interject at all times. NBC responded by stating that none of the candidates' microphones were turned off or muted.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Andrew Yang disputes, Yang qualification for third debate
After Yang had received what he considered to be his fourth qualifying poll, the DNC revealed that qualifying polls conducted by different organizations would not be counted separately if they were sponsored by the same DNC-approved sponsor. The ruling was controversially disclosed by the DNC on July 30, less than one day after Yang had obtained 2% in four polls, rather than on July 19 when the second of these polls had been completed. In spite of this, Yang qualified for the third debate.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Andrew Yang disputes, Yang disputes with MSNBC
In the fifth debate, Yang did not receive his first question until 32 minutes into the debate and spoke for considerably less time than all the other participants. Yang and his supporters criticized the network for what they saw as an undemocratic process. MSNBC asked Yang to join an undisclosed program the weekend of November 24, but Yang said he would not appear until the network "apologizes on-air" and "discusses and includes [his] campaign consistent with [his] polling". Yang ended his self-imposed boycott on December 27 by going on the TV show All in with Chris Hayes, stating "I decided that I'd prefer to speak to as many Americans as possible – our message is too important" on Twitter.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Andrew Yang disputes, Yang qualification for seventh debate
Yang requested for the DNC to conduct more early state polls in December due to a lack of early state polling by qualifying pollsters. The DNC rejected this idea saying that conducting its own polls would call into question its impartiality.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Sixth debate labor disputes
The sixth debate was initially set to be held at the University of California, Los Angeles. However, the DNC announced on November 6 that UCLA was no longer hosting the debate due to a labor dispute.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Sixth debate labor disputes
Due to a Sodexo worker strike at the new venue, Loyola Marymount University, Warren announced that she would not attend the debate unless the labor dispute was resolved, followed soon after by Sanders and Yang. All of the remaining qualifying candidates (Biden,  Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Steyer) then followed suit over the next several days. The dispute was resolved on December 17, allowing the debate to move forward.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, 2020 debates rule-change petition
Days before the December 2019 debate, for which Booker did not qualify, he sent a petition to the other candidates' campaigns in which he urged the DNC to change the qualification requirements for the upcoming debates in 2020 so that more non-white candidates could participate. All candidates that qualified for the December debate as well as Castro signed the petition. The DNC rejected the request to change the qualification criteria. The petition cites the New Hampshire Democratic Party central committee which voted to urge the DNC to "lift the barriers" on participation in further debates.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Seventh debate moderation controversies
During the seventh Democratic debate, January 14, hosted by CNN and the Des Moines Register, the wording of a series of questions from moderator Abby Phillip directed at senators Sanders and Warren drew criticisms from various other news outlets and from Sanders supporters.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Seventh debate moderation controversies
Following reports alleging that Sanders said to Warren in a 2018 private conversation that he did not believe that a woman could defeat Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, Sanders was given the question "Senator Warren confirmed in a statement, that in 2018 you told her that you did not believe that a woman could win the election. Why did you say that?"


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Seventh debate moderation controversies
Sanders stated in his reply "as a matter of fact, I didn't say it" and received the follow-up question from Phillip: "I do want to be clear here, you're saying that you never told Senator Warren that a woman could not win the election?" to which Sanders replied "That is correct." Phillip's next question was directed at Warren, and was phrased: "Senator Warren, what did you think when Senator Sanders told you a woman could not win the election?"


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Seventh debate moderation controversies
MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Donny Deutsch the next day on Morning Joe criticized the question, describing it as "bizarre" and "a miss" respectively. Senior reporter at HuffPost Zach Carter stated that he believes CNN "botched" the debate and Matt Taibi from Rolling Stone described the moderation as "shameful" and "villainous." Jeet Heer from The Nation commented that CNN was "the biggest loser of the night." Washington Examiner senior commentary writer Becket Adams described Phillip's question as "a hatchet job." The controversy also led to negative reactions on social media.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Michael Bloomberg's debate inclusion
In January, Michael Bloomberg became the only candidate to simultaneously reach the polling threshold and fail to reach the donor threshold since the DNC began requiring both with the third debate. According to Politico, some left-wing activists questioned whether the donor threshold should remain part of the qualification requirements, asserting that a candidate polling in the high single or low double digits should not be able to escape in-person scrutiny from other candidates who participate in the debates.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Michael Bloomberg's debate inclusion, DNC debate qualification rules change
On January 31, the DNC announced that it would not impose a donor threshold starting with the ninth debate. DNC spokesperson Adrienne Watson stated that the prior rules were "appropriate for the opening stages of the race, when candidates were building their organizations and there were no metrics available outside of polling to distinguish those making progress from those who weren't." She said the DNC always had planned to change the debate qualification thresholds and that "we signaled it many times". She argued that the rule change was "not designed to benefit any one candidate" and declared that "every candidate has an equal opportunity to qualify".


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Michael Bloomberg's debate inclusion, Other candidates' reactions to Bloomberg's inclusion
Four candidates opposed the DNC's changing the rules allegedly to make sure Bloomberg qualifies for the debates. Sanders senior adviser Jeffrey P. Weaver stated that the rules changing "in the middle of the game" was wrong and "the definition of a rigged system". He also complained that Bloomberg "is trying to buy his way into the Democratic nomination". Warren tweeted, referencing Bloomberg's personal wealth, that "[b]illionaires shouldn't be allowed to play by different rules". She further objected that the DNC failed to change the debate qualification rules to "ensure diverse candidates could remain on the debate stage".


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Michael Bloomberg's debate inclusion, Other candidates' reactions to Bloomberg's inclusion
Biden responded to a question about the issue by pointing out that Bloomberg is not "even on the ballot in Nevada" (the location of the first debate where Bloomberg qualified). Tulsi Gabbard remarked that "The DNC's and "corporate media partners'" playing favorites with candidates is "wrong" and that "[t]he DNC would rather hear from a billionaire than the only person of color left in this race, the first female combat veteran ever to run for president."


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Michael Bloomberg's debate inclusion, Other candidates' reactions to Bloomberg's inclusion
On the other hand, two of the candidates welcomed Bloomberg's inclusion. Buttigieg told reporters, "It is important that we have that process where folks have to stand with their competitors and explain why each of us is the best." Klobuchar took it a bit further, and stated that he should have to answer questions and not "hide behind the airwaves". She claimed that although she could not beat him "on the airwaves", she could beat him in a debate.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Criticisms about the tenth debate, Alleged influence efforts by Bloomberg
There were accusations online and in the media that Bloomberg had stacked the audience in his favor, though nothing was ever proven. The high ticket prices to the event were also heavily condemned. A 60-second ad for Bloomberg's campaign played during the first and second commercial breaks, drawing ire, especially online.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Criticisms about the tenth debate, Moderation
CBS was also widely criticized for doing a poor job of moderating the  debate and letting candidates talk over each other, often leading to 10–20 seconds of unintelligible shouting.


2020 Democratic Party presidential debates, Incidents and controversies, Criticisms about the eleventh debate, Announcement of change from prior format
Following Super Tuesday, the DNC and CNN announced that the eleventh debate would occur in a seated format with "a more intimate setting" and a "town hall-style production featuring audience questions," instead of the traditional format of the prior debates led by formal moderator questioning. This announcement was opposed by the Sanders campaign as "giving Biden too much of a break" and avoiding an "exchange of ideas," as well as criticized by commentators. These concerns became moot after the coronavirus pandemic forced the debate to be changed to the traditional moderator questioning format without any audience.


2020 Democratic Party presidential forums
Debates took place among candidates in the campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for the president of the United States in the 2020 presidential election. Outside of DNC-sponsored debates, candidates are only allowed to attend events in which only one candidate speaks at a time.


2020 Democratic Party presidential forums, Forums
In addition to the party-sponsored debates, many private organizations host forums focusing on select issues and candidates. Candidates do not respond directly to each other at forums.


2020 Democratic Party presidential forums, Forums, Forum participation
P  Present I  Invited N  Not invited A  Absent Out  Not yet entered race W  Withdrawn


2020 Democratic Party presidential forums, Forums, Forum participation
Messam withdrew from the race between the 40th and 41st forum.


2020 Democratic Party presidential forums, Other participants
In a few of the forums, Republicans Bill Weld and Joe Walsh also participated. St. Anselm's quadrennial "Lesser-Known Candidates Forum took place on January 28th.


2020 Democratic Party presidential forums, Incidents, Big Ideas Forum stage invasion
On June 1 during the Big Ideas Forum, a 24-year-old animal rights activist named Aidan Cook stole Sen. Kamala Harris's microphone while she answered a question about equal pay. Security officials and Harris's husband removed Cook from the stage. After the incident, Sen. Cory Booker told CNN he watched the video and was upset with the interference saying, "He crossed a line, this election's going to go on and I'm really hoping that we see Secret Service and others begin to step in because that really could have been a horrifying moment. Kamala's like a sister to me, I love her and that makes me very upset."


2020 Democratic Party presidential forums, Incidents, 2019 Second Step Presidential Justice Forum award
Sponsored by the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center, an alliance of Democrat and Republican African Americans seeking criminal justice reform, this presidential candidate forum was scheduled for October 25–27 at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina. On its first day, President Trump was presented the Bipartisan Justice award for his part in passing the First Step Act, following which Kamala Harris announced she was pulling out of the forum, which in turn prompted criticism from Trump. Mayor Steve Benjamin of Columbia (a co-sponsor of the forum) later announced that he had organized an alternative event called the Collegiate Bipartisan Presidential Forum, scheduled October 26–27, 2019, which Harris announced she would attend.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 3,979 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention held on August 17–20 to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2020 United States presidential election. The elections took place in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories, and Democrats Abroad, and occurred between February 3 and August 11.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
A total of 29 major candidates declared their candidacies for the primaries, the largest field of presidential candidates for any American political party since 1972, exceeding the field of 17 major candidates in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries. Former Vice President Joe Biden led polls throughout 2019, with the exception of a brief period in October when Senator Elizabeth Warren experienced a surge in support. 18 of the 29 declared candidates withdrew before the formal beginning of the primary due to low polling, fundraising, and media coverage.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
The first primary was marred by controversy, as technical issues with vote reporting resulted in a three-day delay in vote counting in the Iowa caucus, as well as subsequent recounts. The certified results of the caucus eventually showed Mayor Pete Buttigieg winning the most delegates, while Senator Bernie Sanders won the popular vote in the state. Sanders then went on to win the New Hampshire primary in a narrow victory over Buttigieg before handily winning the Nevada caucus, cementing his status as the front-runner for the nomination.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
Biden, whose campaign fortunes had suffered from losses in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada made a comeback by overwhelmingly winning the South Carolina primary, motivated by strong support from African-American voters, an endorsement from South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn, and Democratic establishment concerns about nominating Sanders. After Biden won South Carolina, and before the Super Tuesday primaries, several moderate candidates dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden in what was viewed as a consolidation of the party's moderate wing. Biden then went on to win 10 out of 15 contests on Super Tuesday, beating back challenges from Sanders, Warren, and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, solidifying his lead.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
On April 8, Biden became the presumptive nominee after Sanders, the only other candidate remaining, withdrew from the race. In early June, Biden passed the threshold of 1,991 delegates to win the nomination. In total, seven candidates received pledged delegates: Biden, Sanders, Warren, Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Senator Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard. On August 11, Biden announced that former presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris would be his running mate. Biden and Harris were officially nominated for president and vice president by delegates at the Democratic National Convention on August 18 and 19. Biden and Harris went on to win the presidency and vice presidency in the general election on November 3, defeating the incumbents President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Background
After Hillary Clinton's loss in the previous election, many felt the Democratic Party lacked a clear leading figure. Divisions remained in the party following the 2016 primaries, which pitted Clinton against Bernie Sanders. Between the 2016 election and the 2018 midterm elections, Senate Democrats generally shifted to the political left in relation to college tuition, healthcare, and immigration. The 2018 elections saw the Democratic Party regain the House of Representatives for the first time in eight years, picking up seats in both urban and suburban districts.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Background, Reforms since 2016
On August 25, 2018, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) members passed reforms to the Democratic Party's primary process in order to increase participation and ensure transparency. State parties are encouraged to use a government-run primary whenever available and increase the accessibility of their primary through same-day or automatic registration and same-day party switching. Caucuses are required to have absentee voting, or to otherwise allow those who cannot participate in person to be included.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Background, Reforms since 2016
Independent of the results of the primaries and caucuses, the Democratic Party, from its group of party leaders and elected officials, also appointed 771 unpledged delegates (superdelegates) to participate in its national convention.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Background, Reforms since 2016
In contrast to all previous election cycles since superdelegates were introduced in 1984, superdelegates will no longer have the right to cast decisive votes on the convention's first ballot for the presidential nomination. They will be allowed to cast non-decisive votes if a candidate has clinched the nomination before the first ballot, or decisive votes on subsequent ballots in a contested convention. In that case, the number of votes required shall increase to a majority of pledged and superdelegates combined. Superdelegates are not precluded from publicly endorsing a candidate before the convention.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Background, Reforms since 2016
There were also a number of changes to the process of nomination at the state level. A decline in the number of caucuses occurred after 2016, with Democrats in Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Washington all switching from various forms of caucuses to primaries (with Hawaii, Kansas, and North Dakota switching to party-run "firehouse primaries"). This has resulted in the lowest number of caucuses in the Democratic Party's recent history, with only three states (Iowa, Nevada, and Wyoming) and four territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas, and U.S. Virgin Islands) using them.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Background, Reforms since 2016
In addition, six states were approved in 2019 by the DNC to use ranked-choice voting in the primaries: Alaska, Hawaii, Kansas, and Wyoming for all voters; Iowa and Nevada for absentee voters. Rather than eliminating candidates until a single winner is chosen, voters' choices would be reallocated until all remaining candidates have at least 15%, the threshold to receive delegates to the convention.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Background, Reforms since 2016
Several states which did not use paper ballots widely in 2016 and 2018, adopted them for the 2020 primary and general elections,to minimize potential interference in vote tallies, a concern raised by intelligence officials,election officialsand the public. The move to paper ballots enabled audits to start where they had not been possible before, and in 2020 about half the states audit samples of primary ballots to measure accuracy of the reported results. Audits of caucus results depend on party rules, and the Iowa Democratic party investigated inaccuracies in precinct reports, resolved enough to be sure the delegate allocations were correct, and decided it did not have authority or time to correct all errors.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Background, Rules for number of delegates, Number of pledged delegates per state
The number of pledged delegates from each state is proportional to the state's share of the electoral college, and to the state's past Democratic votes for president. Thus less weight is given to swing states and Republican states, while more weight is given to strongly Democratic states, in choosing a nominee.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Background, Rules for number of delegates, Number of pledged delegates per state
Six pledged delegates are assigned to each territory, 44 to Puerto Rico, and 12 to Democrats Abroad. Each jurisdiction can also earn bonus delegates by holding primaries after March or in clusters of 3 or more neighboring states.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Background, Rules for number of delegates, Number of pledged delegates per state
Within states, a quarter of pledged delegates are allocated to candidates based on statewide vote totals, and the rest based on votes in each Congressional District, though some states use divisions other than congressional districts. For example, Texas uses state Senate districts. Districts which have voted Democratic in the past get more delegates, and fewer delegates are allocated for swing districts and Republican districts. For example, House Speaker Pelosi's strongly Democratic district 12 has 7 delegates, or one per 109,000 people, and a swing district, CA-10, which became Democratic in 2018, has 4 delegates, or one per 190,000 people.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Background, Rules for number of delegates, Candidate threshold
Candidates who received under 15% of the votes in a state or district got no delegates from that area. Candidates who got 15% or more of the votes divided delegates in proportion to their votes. These rules apply at the state level to state delegates and within each district for those delegates. The 15% threshold was established in 1992 to limit "fringe" candidates. The threshold now means that any sector of the party (moderate, progressive, etc.) which produces many candidates, thus dividing supporters' votes, may win few delegates, even if it wins a majority of votes.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Election day postponements and cancellations
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, a number of presidential primaries were rescheduled. On April 27, New York cancelled its primary altogether on the grounds that there was only one candidate left with an active campaign. Andrew Yang responded with a lawsuit, arguing that the decision infringes on voting rights, and in early May, the judge ruled in favor of Yang.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Election day postponements and cancellations
In addition, the DNC elected to delay the 2020 Democratic National Convention from July 13–16 to August 17–20.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Candidates
Major candidates in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries had held significant elective office or received substantial media coverage.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Candidates
Nearly 300 candidates who did not receive significant media coverage also filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for president in the primary.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Candidates, Withdrew during the primaries
Other notable individuals who were not major candidates terminated their campaigns during the primaries:


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Candidates, Withdrew before the primaries
Other notable individuals who were not major candidates terminated their campaigns before the primaries:


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Debates and forums
In December 2018, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced the schedule for 12 official DNC-sanctioned debates, set to begin in June 2019, with six debates in 2019 and the remaining six during the first four months of 2020. Candidates are allowed to participate in forums featuring multiple other candidates as long as only one candidate appears on stage at a time; if candidates participate in any unsanctioned debate with other presidential candidates, they will lose their invitation to the next DNC-sanctioned debate.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Debates and forums
The DNC also announced that it would not partner with Fox News as a media sponsor for any debates. Fox News had last held a Democratic debate in 2003. All media sponsors selected to host a debate will as a new rule be required to appoint at least one female moderator for each debate, to ensure there will not be a gender-skewed treatment of the candidates and debate topics.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Primary election polling
The following graph depicts the standing of each candidate in the poll aggregators from December 2018 to April 2020.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Ballot access
Filing for the primaries began in October 2019.  indicates that the candidate was on the ballot for the primary contest,  indicates that the candidate was a recognized write-in candidate, and  indicates that the candidate did not appear on the ballot in that state's contest. indicates that a candidate withdrew before the election but was still listed on the ballot.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, National convention
The 2020 Democratic National Convention was scheduled to take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 13–16, 2020, but was postponed and rescheduled to take place on August 17–20 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, National convention
The event became a virtual "Convention Across America" with voting held online before the opening gavel, and the non-televised events held remotely over ZOOM.


2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Campaign finance
This is an overview of the money being raised and spent by each campaign for the entire period running from January 1, 2017, to March 31, 2020, as it was reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Total raised is the sum of all individual contributions (large and small), loans from the candidate, and transfers from other campaign committees. The last column, Cash On Hand (COH), has been calculated by subtracting the "spent" amount from the "raised" amount, thereby showing the remaining cash each campaign had available for its future spending as of February 29, 2020. As of February 29, 2020, the major candidates have raised $989,234,992.08.