The fifth Democratic presidential primary debate in Georgia will have four moderators, MSNBC announced on Wednesday — and all of them are women.
Moderating the Nov. 20 event, which is being co-hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post, will be Rachel Maddow, host of "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC; Andrea Mitchell, host of "Andrea Mitchell Reports" on MSNBC and NBC News' chief foreign affairs correspondent; Kristen Welker, NBC News' White House correspondent; and Ashley Parker, a White House reporter for The Washington Post.
The debate will likely feature a smaller lineup of candidates than the dozen who qualified for October's debate in Ohio — only nine candidates have qualified for the debate stage so far, according to an unofficial NBC News tally. It will also be shorter than the three-hour October debate — it's scheduled to air from 9 to 11 p.m. ET.
It will air live on MSNBC and will also stream on MSNBC.com and the Post's website, as well as across mobile devices via NBC News and the Post's mobile apps.
The city, venue and format will be announced at a later date, according to MSNBC.
To qualify for the stage, candidates have to meet fundraising and polling criteria laid out by the Democratic National Committee one week before the debate.
Those benchmarks include hitting at least 3 percent in four qualifying state or national polls or 5 percent in two qualifying state polls. The fundraising threshold requires candidates to have received contributions from 165,000 unique donors, including 600 unique donors in 20 states.
The nine candidates who appear to have qualified to date are former Vice President Joe Biden; New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker; Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana; California Sen. Kamala Harris; Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders; billionaire Tom Steyer; Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren; entrepreneur Andrew Yang; and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
Three other candidates appear to have reached the fundraising threshold, but are still short in the polling criteria. Former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke in two and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in one. Former Housing Secretary Julián Castro has not yet qualified in any poll.
