Democratic debate: Names of 20 candidates who will participate in first two debates released

One of these contenders will challenge Donald Trump for White House

Democratic Party officials have released the names of the 20 candidates who have qualified to take part in the first debates later this month.

The candidates who qualified are Michael Bennet, Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julián Castro, Bill de Blasio, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, John Hickenlooper, Jay Inslee, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Tim Ryan, Bernie Sanders, Eric Swalwell, Elizabeth Warren, Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang.

Those who did not make the debate qualification were Montana governor Steve Bullock, former senator Mike Gravel, Florida mayor Wayne Messam and congressman Seth Moulton.

The list of 24 potential candidates was perhaps the largest of any primary campaign, certainly in recent political industry, even larger than the 17 Republicans who contested in the last election cycle, a contest that resulted with the nomination of Donald Trump, who then went on to win the White House.

“Bennet, Biden, Booker, Buttigieg, Castro, de Blasio, Delaney, Gabbard, Gillibrand, Harris, Hickenlooper, Inslee, Klobuchar, O’Rourke, Ryan, Sanders, Swalwell, Warren, Williamson, and Yang – see you in Miami,” the Democratic Party tweeted from its official Twitter feed on Thursday evening.

In order to thin down the numbers, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) set qualification standards.

Candidates had to either obtain 65,000 donors to their campaigns, with at least 200 donors in 20 different states, or obtain at least 1 percent in three polls recognised as legitimate by the committee.

The DNC said if more than 20 candidates qualified for the debate, it would choose participants with “a methodology that gives primacy to candidates meeting both thresholds, followed by the highest polling average, followed by the most unique donors”.

Of the 20 candidates, a total of 14 of them qualified by both measures.

The two-night debate, hosted by NBC News, MSNBC and Telemundo, will take place on June 26 and 27 at the Adrienne Arsht Centre for the Performing Arts in Miami.

Lester Holt, Savannah Guthrie, Chuck Todd, Rachel Maddow and José Diaz-Balart will moderate the debates.

Officials have not yet announced the line-up for the two nights. The party intends that candidates names will be selected at random.