Viewing Parties Set For Democratic Presidential Debate

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Viewing parties are planned for nine sites in Los Angeles County for today's Democratic presidential debate, the first of the 2020 campaign with all female moderators.

The parties will be held at:

-- The Abbey, 692 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood;

-- The Association, 110 E. Sixth St., downtown Los Angeles;

-- Gramercy, 2460 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica;

-- Pride Hall, Anita May Rosenstein Campus, 1118 N. McCadden Place, Hollywood;

-- The Queensberry, 819 S. Flower St.;

-- Redline DTLA, 131 E. Sixth St., downtown Los Angeles;

-- Rosalind's Ethiopian Restaurant, 1044 S. Fairfax Ave.;

-- Second Home Hollywood, 1370 N. St Andrew's Place, Hollywood; and

-- 3817 Albright Ave., Culver City.

The party at Gramercy is organized by supporters of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the one at Redline DTLA by supporters of South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and the one at 3817 Albright Ave. by supporters of Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

The planned two-hour debate sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee and hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post will begin at 6 p.m. and be broadcast on MSNBC and streamed for free on MSNBC.com, washingtonpost.com and across mobile devices via NBC News and The Washington Post's mobile apps.

Audio of the debate will be available on SiriusXM Channel 118 and TuneIn.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell, NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker and Washington Post White House reporter Ashley Parker will serve as moderators for the debate at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.

In the 2016 campaign, a Democratic debate on the Public Broadcasting Service and a Republican debate on Fox Business Network had all female moderators.

The field for the campaign's fifth debate was based on qualification criteria agreed to by the DNC, MSNBC and The Washington Post. Candidates had to meet one of two polling requirements and a unique donor requirement.

Candidates had to receive 3% or more support in at least four polls -- which may be national polls, or single-state polls in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada in DNC-approved polls - - or 5% or more support in two single-state polls in those states.

Candidates were also required to receive contributions from at least 165,000 unique donors, including a minimum of 600 unique donors per state in at least 20 states.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro did not qualify for the debate after qualifying for each of the first four.

The candidates' positions on the stage was determined by their support in recent polls, with the highest polling candidates near the center.

Standing from left to right will be New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker; Gabbard; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; Buttigieg; Warren; former Vice President Joe Biden; Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders; California Sen. Kamala Harris; entrepreneur Andrew Yang; and former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer.

Photo: Getty Images