Democratic Debate to Be Moderated by Four Women: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Democratic candidates will be grilled by a four female journalists at the next presidential debate on Nov. 20, MSNBC announced Wednesday.

The forum in Georgia will be co-hosted by the Washington Post and MSNBC. It will feature Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell and Kristen Welker from the network, and Ashley Parker from the Post.

The two-hour event has a higher bar to qualify than previous debates. Candidates must have contributions from 165,000 donors, up from 135,000. And the donors must be geographically dispersed, with a minimum of 600 per state in at least 20 states. In addition, participants must either show 3% support in four qualifying national or single-state polls, or have at least 5% support in two qualifying single-state polls released between Sept. 13 and Nov. 13 in the early nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or Nevada.

Eight candidates have already qualified: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Cory Booker, Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang.

The city, venue and format for the debate haven’t been announced.

Booker Tells Moderates to ‘Look No Further’ (1:07 p.m.)

Cory Booker on Wednesday sought to remind Democrats that he offers a viable alternative to Joe Biden as a moderate candidate.

“To those Democrats who are looking for an alternative right now -- I want to make the case today very directly: Look no further,” Booker said in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington. “I can, and have, excited a diverse coalition of voters. I can, and have, united progressives and moderates.” Booker is polling at about 1% among Democratic voters.

As Elizabeth Warren has gained ground on Biden in recent weeks, Democrats said the party might need a different moderate candidate to run against Donald Trump, even if that means someone new jumping into the race.

Booker argued that he could court moderate whites and has “demonstrated time and time again” that he is able to turn out the vote and win in a black electorate.

Other moderates like Pete Buttigieg have struggled to entice African American voters. Booker said he believes Democrats can win back the Midwest by turning out black voters in cities like “Milwaukee and Detroit and Philadelphia who didn’t vote at all” in 2016. “Democrats don’t need more candidates to enter this primary,” he said. “We have great candidates already.” -- Emma Kinery

Warren Gains With South Carolina’s Black Voters (12:31 a.m.)

Elizabeth Warren is gaining ground among African Americans in South Carolina, according to a new Monmouth University poll released Wednesday.

When black voters were asked for their first and second choices for president, Warren more than doubled her backing, to 26% compared with 11% in July. Still, Joe Biden has almost twice as much support at 52%, down from 62% in July. The poll was conducted from Oct. 16-21 and has a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.

Bernie Sanders’s support among African Americans rose 2 percentage points to 25%, and Kamala Harris’s dropped from 28% in July to 17%.

When first and second choice percentages are combined for all voters, Biden leads with 46%, down 4 percentage points from July. Warren follows at 35%, up from 19% in July, and Sanders’s numbers remain unchanged at 23%. -- Emma Kinery

Biden’s Iowa Director Thanks ‘the Onion’ Satire (11:01 a.m.)

Campaigns know they have to meet voters where they are, which is why Joe Biden’s campaign has a satire site to thank for its youth voter outreach.

Biden’s Iowa State Director Jake Braun told the Des Moines Register that he was thankful to the satirical news site the Onion for its years of covering the former vice president. Braun said the articles, along with online memes of his friendship with former President Barack Obama, helped boost his name recognition with younger voters.

“So, oddly enough, who knew that we’d be able to thank The Onion,” Braun told the Register.

The Onion characterized Biden as a “cool dad” vice president and showed him “frantically cleaning up” the trashed VP residence, looking for his lost pet snake in the White House and asking President Barack Obama to bring him back “some of those real throwing stars” from his diplomatic visit to Japan.

Despite leading overall, Biden is polling poorly with youth voters compared to the other top-tier candidates. He had 8% support among voters 18-29 in Emerson University’s poll released Tuesday, compared to 34% who supported Bernie Sanders and 15% who backed Elizabeth Warren. -- Emma Kinery

Biden’s Lead in CNN Poll Widest Since April (6:50 AM)

Joe Biden is rebounding, at least according to the latest CNN poll, which registered his widest lead since April among fellow Democratic White House candidates.

It’s an encouraging sign for the former vice president, who has been on the verge of losing his front-runner status to rival Elizabeth Warren.

Biden has the support of 34% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters, with Warren second with 19% followed by Bernie Sanders with 16%. Biden’s bump hasn’t appeared to harm Warren or Sanders, whose support stayed steady from the last CNN poll in September.

Instead, Biden has seen his support spike among moderate and conservative Democrats, 43% of whom support him now, up from 29% in the September poll. He also registered a 14 percentage-point gain among racial and ethnic minorities and a 13-point gain among voters 45 and older. The national poll, conducted Oct. 17-20, has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 5.8 percentage points. -- Kathleen Hunter

COMING UP

Cory Booker is scheduled to speak at the National Press Club in Washington at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.

Julian Castro, Beto O’Rourke and Sanders are to attend a town hall hosted by the League of United Latin American Citizens in Iowa on Thursday from 7 p.m.-9 p.m. local time.

Biden, Booker, Buttigieg, Castro, Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Sanders and Warren are set to attend a forum hosted by the Bipartisan Justice Center in Columbia, South Carolina, Oct. 25-27.

--With assistance from Kathleen Hunter and Emma Kinery.

To contact the reporter on this story: Max Berley in Washington at mberley@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, John Harney

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