Democratic presidential candidates will likely be all over South Florida during the last week in June.
The Democratic National Committee announced Thursday that the first debate among the candidates for its 2020 presidential nomination will take place in Miami.
The party used the term “debate,” but it’s actually two events on two successive nights, June 26 and June 27.
There are so many candidates that the debates are being split, with random selection process to decide who appears on what night.
The Democrats already have 16 candidates — including Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam, who announced his candidacy Thursday — and more are sure to join the field.
To qualify for the debates, candidates will have to either meet thresholds of 1 percent in national polling or in early primary states or receive contributions from 65,000 different donors, with at least 200 of them in each of at least 20 states.
When candidates head to a region for a debate, many hold events before and after.
In 2016, Bernie Sanders held his only Florida rally before the state’s presidential primary because he was headed to South Florida for a debate. He was in the region to debate Hillary Clinton at Miami-Dade College’s Kendall campus, so he held a rally for supporters the day before.
The first debates among the 2020 Democratic candidates will be broadcast on NBC and MSNBC and translated into Spanish on the Telemundo network.
“Miami is the perfect place to introduce our extraordinary presidential candidates to the country,” Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Terrie Rizzo said in a statement. “People are hungry for new leadership in the White House, and after the first debate, they’re going to be fired up and ready to organize for Democrats.”
Tom Perez, the Democratic national chairman, called Miami “a vibrant and dynamic city that reflects the values and diversity of the Democratic Party.”
aman@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4550 or Twitter @browardpolitics