Second Democratic Debate, Hosted by CNN, to Be Held July 30-31 in Detroit

By Ted Johnson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – WASHINGTON — The second Democratic presidential primary debate will be held on July 30 and July 31 in Detroit, with the exact venue to be announced.

will broadcast the event across platforms, including CNN International and CNN en Espanol.

The Democratic National Committee announced last week that the first Democratic debate would be held on June 26 and June 27 in Miami. NBC News, MSNBC, and Telemundo will telecast the event.

The choice of Detroit is significant, as Democrats are hoping that its presidential candidate reclaims Michigan in the 2020 election. Hillary Clinton narrowly lost the state to Donald Trump in 2016, helping him win the electoral college vote.

“Detroit embodies the values and character of the Democratic party,” said DNC chairman Tom Perez. “It’s a city of grit and determination, and a city that has gotten knocked down only to get back up stronger.”

The already announced a plan to split the debate into two nights because of the size of the field. Under the plan, participants will be selected at random to determine the lineup for each night. A limit of 20 candidates was placed on the debates over both nights.

The criteria for the first debates will be for a candidate to register 1% or more support in three polls publicly released between Jan. 1 and 14 days prior to the date of the event. The DNC also said that the polls could be national, or a combination of one or more polls from Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, or Nevada.

Candidates may also qualify by showing that the campaign has drawn donations from at least 65,000 unique donors, and a minimum of 200 unique donors per state in at least 20 states.

CNN aired the first Democratic primary debate of the last cycle, in October 2015 in Las Vegas. The event drew more than 15 million viewers.