9th US Democratic debate: What you need to know

The six remaining Democrats running to compete against Donald Trump in the November general election will face off on Wednesday night in the ninth of a series of debates, this one just ahead of a caucus vote in Nevada over the weekend.

The debate, to be aired on television by MSNBC and streamed on several NBC News platforms, including Telemundo in Spanish, will be held at the Paris theatre in Las Vegas and airs beginning at 8pm local time (02:00 GMT on Thursday). It is scheduled to last two hours.

On the stage will be Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, as well former Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Vice President Joe Biden, and, for the first time, New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Tulsi Gabbard and Tom Steyer are still in the race, but did not qualify under rules established by the Democratic Party.

The addition of Bloomberg to the usual coterie of candidates is expected to add some fireworks to the evening, mainly because his opponents have not had a chance to challenge him to his face yet. Bloomberg is not on the ballot in Nevada, but qualified for the debate by rising in national polls on the back of unprecedented spending.

Bloomberg has spent more than $400m of his own money on the campaign so far, mainly on television and digital advertising, an effort that has drawn criticism from his challengers, who insist he is trying to “buy” the Democratic nomination.

“We’re going to end a corrupt political system in which billionaires buy elections,” Sanders, echoing comments from the other candidates, told a crowd at a rally in Denver earlier in the week. “Democracy, to me, means one person, one vote. Not Bloomberg or anybody else spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to buy an election.”

It’s a shame Mike Bloomberg can buy his way into the debate. But at least now primary voters curious about how each candidate will take on Donald Trump can get a live demonstration of how we each take on an egomaniac billionaire. https://t.co/H02radEZcv

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) February 18, 2020

A new poll published on Tuesday showed Bloomberg with 19 percent support nationally in the Democratic nomination contest. Support for Sanders in the same poll was at 31 percent, up nine points since December. Coming in third in the poll was Biden with 15 percent, down nine points since December.

The stakes on Wednesday night are high for all the candidates, not just Bloomberg. After more than a year of campaigning, there is little clarity in the search for a nominee.

Longtime establishment favourite Biden is fighting to breathe new life into his flailing campaign, and Warren, another early favourite, has found herself eclipsed on the progressive side of the Democratic spectrum by Sanders.

Some Democrats fear that the conditions are ripe for a bare-knuckles brawl on national television that could carve new scars into a divided party that must ultimately come together this fall if it hopes to deny Trump a second term.

President Trump, for his part, is continuing his habit of holding political rallies in states right before the Democrats hold election contests. Trump plans a rally in Las Vegas on Friday, the day before the Nevada caucuses. He held a similar rally in Des Moines, Iowa before the caucuses there and in Manchester, New Hampshire on the eve of the primary there.

The next debate is scheduled to be held in Columbia, South Carolina on February 25, days before the primary contest in the southern state.