How to watch: The debate is 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time. It is co-hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post.

Moderators: Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell, Kristen Welker and Ashley Parker.

Candidates: Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Senator Kamala Harris, the entrepreneur Andrew Yang, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Senator Cory Booker, Representative Tulsi Gabbard and the billionaire Tom Steyer.

Here’s what you need to know:

Join us for live analysis on debate night. Subscribe to “On Politics,” and we’ll send you a link.

Will race and gender be focal points tonight?

After several debates centered on the thorny details of policy — most of all health care — tonight’s debate has the potential to return some focus in the primary campaign to matters of race and gender.

The subject of identity has never been far from the surface in the Democratic primary, but it has seemed to simmer with new intensity over the last few weeks as a clear top tier of four candidates has emerged — one that includes three white men.

As Mr. Buttigieg has risen in the polls, several African-American and Latino candidates have expressed concern about his lack of appeal to minority voters, and Ms. Klobuchar has said Mr. Buttigieg was getting a pass on his thin political résumé because he is male. In Nevada this week, Ms. Harris warned that the Democratic nominee had to be a person who was “relevant to the diversity of who we are as a country” — a particular challenge to Mr. Buttigieg, but perhaps also a critique of the all-white top tier of candidates in the race.

As Mr. Biden has taken on Ms. Warren in sharply personal terms, Ms. Warren and her allies have questioned whether Mr. Biden’s criticism has been laced with sexism. The subject of gender arose in their heated clash over health care policy, after Ms. Warren suggested that Mr. Biden’s attacks on “Medicare for all” sounded like they belonged in a Republican primary and Mr. Biden blasted her worldview as “angry” and “elitist.”

“Over and over,” Ms. Warren responded in an email to supporters, “we are told that women are not allowed to be angry. It makes us unattractive to powerful men who want us to be quiet.”

Mr. Biden and Mr. Buttigieg have responded to criticism in different ways: Mr. Biden by dialing back some of his harshest language about Ms. Warren, and Mr. Buttigieg by acknowledging far more directly that he has work to do with voters who are not white. Whether they maintain those approaches on the debate stage, and whether voters find them convincing on these subjects, remains to be seen.

Julián Castro looks ahead to Iowa

Although the former cabinet secretary did not qualify for tonight’s debate in Atlanta, Mr. Castro said he has no plans of dropping out of the race and looks forward to “beating expectations” in the Iowa caucuses.

In a phone interview, Mr. Castro criticized thresholds set by the Democratic National Committee for debate qualification. He said that by focusing on polling and donors with months to go before the Iowa caucuses, candidacies like his — which has been retooled to focus on social justice and systemic discrimination — have been unduly hurt.

“They need to be reviewed and they need adjustments,” Mr. Castro said of the rules. “It’s too easy for people to pump money to get onto the debate stage,” he added, though he declined to be specific.

Rejecting speculation that he would soon drop out of the race, Mr. Castro said, “We still have 10 weeks until the Iowa caucuses, and 10 weeks is 10 lifetimes in politics these days.”

Mr. Castro plans to watch the debate in his San Antonio headquarters, after spending the day touring black communities in Atlanta that are facing housing displacement. He said his focus on issues such as housing, police brutality and immigration has already “shaped the debate” and pushed other candidates to the left.

When asked what has hindered his campaign, Mr. Castro said that voters and pundits are tied to a model of “electability” that hurts minority candidates. He pointed to the blowback he received after a sharp interaction about immigration with Mr. Biden in a previous debate.

“The media ran with a narrative that I was attacking the vice president on his age, and if that exchange would have happened with a different candidate, I don’t think they would have run with that,” Mr. Castro said. “It was about policy.”

“The challenge has been,” he said, “the deeply ingrained perception of who is the most electable against Donald Trump.”

“People say ‘I love your voice and you should be on that debate stage,’” he said, “We’re working to convert those folks to make me their first choice.”

He talked down those who said he’d make a good vice president.

“I’m running for president. And that’s what I’m focused on.”

The Stacey Abrams show

One thing to watch for will be which of the 10 candidates onstage will be the first to invoke the name of Stacey Abrams, the failed 2018 Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia, who is popular across some of the party’s ideological divisions.

Ms. Abrams, the 45-year-old former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, was tapped to deliver the Democratic response to the State of the Union this year and has said she is open to joining a 2020 ticket as vice president.

Given the fact that the debate is in her home state, the question is how many candidates will seek to win over the crowd with a reference to Ms. Abrams.

The shadows of those not onstage

Since the last debate, former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts has joined the race and the billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg has inched toward a run, including filing for the ballot in two states. While neither will be onstage, both will be part of the political calculus of those in the spotlight.

It is hard not to view these late entrants as a judgment on the strength of Mr. Biden, who has occupied the moderate lane of the party. But a strong performance from him could send a message to Mr. Bloomberg.

The Patrick candidacy is also a statement on the other two black candidates in the race, Mr. Booker and Ms. Harris, whom Mr. Patrick sees as failing to successfully bridge the party’s racial and ideological factions.

One other big name not onstage: Hillary Clinton, who since the last debate has suggested that Ms. Gabbard was being “groomed” for a third party run, and that she is a favorite of the Russians. Ms. Gabbard, ever a debate wild card, has already gotten some political mileage out of the attack and could raise the issue herself.

Cory Booker’s last shot

This could well be the last time we’ll see Mr. Booker on a 2020 presidential debate stage. The New Jersey senator has not reached the threshold in any qualifying polls for December’s debate. Nor has he reached the 200,000-donor requirement, though an aide said he is close.

Since it launched in February, the Booker campaign has been about love and hope, qualities that are in short supply for his presidential effort among Democratic primary voters. While he’s made a favorable impression in Iowa — especially among elected officials and county leaders — Mr. Booker has not demonstrated strong support among the public.

So far just six candidates have qualified for the December debate, but Mr. Yang, Mr. Steyer and Ms. Gabbard are each on the cusp. Mr. Yang needs one more qualifying poll, Mr. Steyer must reach the donor threshold and Ms. Gabbard requires both another poll and meeting the donor threshold.

Yet unlike those three, Mr. Booker entered the campaign as an expected first-tier candidate. Dropping off the debate stage six weeks before the Iowa caucuses would be a disappointing end for a well-liked candidate.

Joe Biden’s pre-debate ‘oops’

Mr. Biden hopes he made you proud tonight — almost six hours before he took the debate stage.

The Biden campaign suffered an email snafu on Wednesday afternoon, when they accidentally blasted out his pre-written, post-debate fund-raising email hours before the debate began. It came complete with telegraphing a coming line of attack on Ms. Warren.

“I hope I made you proud out there and I hope I made it clear to the world why our campaign is so important,” Mr. Biden wrote.

And the swipe at Ms. Warren, who has made having plans a campaign hallmark?

“We need more than plans,” he wrote. “We need the grit and the resolve to get things done.”

An hour later came the follow up. The subject line: “Oops.”

“You might have just gotten an email from Joe about just getting off of the debate stage. That’s our bad, team,” the campaign wrote. “We know Joe is going to make us proud tonight. We were just so excited for it that we accidentally hit send too soon.”

His campaign hopes the email is his only “oops” moment of the day.

Pete Buttigieg releases tax returns from his McKinsey years

Mr. Buttigieg on Wednesday released tax returns from his two years working as a McKinsey consultant. He was paid $80,397 in 2007 and $122,680 in 2008, according to the returns. His campaign had made his tax returns from 2009 to 2018 public earlier this year.

Mr. Buttigieg has said very little about his time at McKinsey, and the documents do not indicate the nature of his work. He said he remains bound by a confidentiality agreement with the consulting firm but that he has asked for it to be waived.

Upon releasing his additional two years of tax returns, Mr. Buttigieg called on his Democratic rivals to “be transparent with voters by disclosing their income in the private and public sectors.”

Such a reference is a preview of a possible debate line of attack against Ms. Warren, who has done legal work for an array of private-sector clients. She has released her tax returns from the years 2008 to 2018.

Astead W. Herndon, Thomas Kaplan, Katie Glueck and Alexander Burns contributed reporting.

Source: Read Full Article