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With less than two weeks to go until the second round of Democratic debates, CNN has already picked the candidates who will face off against each other.
Taking place over two back to back evenings, we will see, courtesy of the DNC and CNN, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren go head to head on July 30; and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris featured on Wednesday night, July 31.
Based on polling and then chosen randomly on the night itself, 20 candidates were divided into three tiers to keep the evenings balanced.
Tuesday night’s debate will feature Steve Bullock, Pete Buttigieg, John Delaney, Amy Klobuchar, John Hickenlooper, Beto O’Rourke, Tim Ryan, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Marianne Williamson.
Sanders and Warren will appear at the center lecterns. Warren is happy about the results.
“Bernie and I have been friends for a long, long time. We’ve worked a lot of issues together,” Warren said.
On Wednesday, July 31 the debaters will include Michael Bennet, Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Julian Castro, Bill de Blasio, Tulsi Babbard, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Jay Inslee, and Andrew Yang.
Harris and Biden, who will be standing next to each other, argued during the first Democratic debate about the former vice president’s expressed opinions on racial issues. Historically Biden came out in opposition to federally forced busing. The two will be standing side by side during the up-coming debate.
Senator Corey Booker will also be standing next to Biden, risking another clash. This pair fought over Biden’s comments about his relations with segregationist senators.
The tree groups consist of the 10 candidates who averaged under 1 percent for three qualifying polls. The second group includes the 6 candidates with between 1 and 9.9 percent, and the last four candidates in the third group were those with 10 percent or above in the polls. In order for any inclusion a candidate needed to have at least 1 percent in at least one of the polls.
The debates will be broadcast live by CNN from Detroit.
