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Democratic debate: What to know before Texas candidates take the stage

Two Texans, former El Paso Congressman Beto O'Rourke and former HUD Secretary and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, will be among the 20 Democratic presidential candidates to face off in their first debate this coming Wednesday and Thursday.

The candidates will be split into two groups of 10 candidates and will face off at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami and debates will air from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. MT on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo. The debate can be watched live at nbcnews.com or on the NBC News app.

A debate watch party for O’Rourke will be from 6:30 – 9 p.m. Wednesday at Ay Cocula Mexican Restaurant, 1435 N Lee Trevino Drive, and Later Later, 109 N. Coldwell St. in El Paso

The next debates will be July 30-31 in Detroit and September 12-13, with the location to be determined. The Democratic National Committee raised the bar for candidates to qualify in the September debate and they will need to poll at 2% or more in four qualifying polls and tally at least 130,000 individual donors.

MORE:What you need to know about the 2020 election so far

2020 candidates so far

Joining the Texans on night one:

  • Former Maryland Representative John Delaney 
  • Washington Gov.Jay Inslee 
  • Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
  • Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar
  • Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
  • New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker
  • Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan
  • New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio

Facing off on Day two 

  • California Rep. Eric Swalwell
  • Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet
  • New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
  • California Sen. Kamala Harris
  • Former Vice President Joe Biden
  • Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
  • South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg
  • Entrepreneur Andrew Yang
  • Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper
  • Author and activist Marianne Williamson

Failing to qualify:

  • Montana Gov. Steve Bullock
  • Miramar, Florida, Mayor Wayne Messam
  • Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton
  • Former Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak

To qualify, candidates had to poll at 1% or more in at least 3 qualified polls or receive donations from at least 65,000 individual donors, with a minimum of 200 donors per state in at least 20 states.

The moderators

Moderators will be Lester Holt, Savannah Guthrie, Chuck Todd, Rachel Maddow and José Díaz-Balart. The format of the debates will be the same on each night. Holt will appear in both hours. Guthrie and Diaz-Balart will join Holt for the first half. In the second half, Todd and Maddow will join as moderators.

What do voters care about?

Health care, immigration, the economy, climate change, education and taxes top the list of issues Democrats told a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll they want to hear about during the two-night, 20-candidate debate marathon in Miami.

President Trump, including efforts to get him out of the White House, ranked eighth in responses to the open-ended question, named by just 4%. Fewer than 1% cited "election interference."

Nearly every Democratic voter in the poll called the debates crucial to sorting out a record field of contenders. An overwhelming majority, 82%, said they'll be watching, and 86% said the debates will be important in determining which candidate they'll support. More than half, 54%, called them "very important."

MORE:What Beto O'Rourke and Julian Castro must do to shine in the first Democratic debate

The poll of 1,000 registered voters was taken June 11-15. The margin of error was three percentage points for the full sample, five points for the sample of 385 respondents who said they were likely to vote in Democratic primaries or caucuses, and four points for the combined sample of 618 Democrats and independents. 

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