How To Watch De Blasio, Gillibrand In 1st Presidential Debates

NEW YORK — Get ready for a presidential rumble. New York's two Democratic presidential candidates will make their cases to a national audience this week in the first official debates of the 2020 campaign.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand will face off with 18 other White House hopefuls in the Democratic National Committee debates on Wednesday and Thursday. De Blasio will take the stage in Miami with the first group of debaters, while Gillibrand will grapple with some of the race's top contenders on the second night.

While they won't get to battle each other, the debates will give de Blasio and Gillibrand a chance to boost their longshot presidential campaigns. Both have struggled to gain traction among voters in public polls, and the debates could help them distinguish themselves in a crowded field of two dozen candidates.

De Blasio has been preparing for the debate with campaign aides and seeking advice from his son, Dante, who played a role in his 2013 mayoral campaign. Gillibrand recently held an intense mock debate with campaign staffers in upstate Troy, where her campaign is headquartered, with a reporter from The New York Times in the room.

Here's how to watch New York's White House contenders on the debate stage.

Where Can I Watch The Debate?

The debates start at 9 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday and Thursday nights. NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo will broadcast the debates on television and stream them for free on NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, the NBC News app and other apps.

Who Will Be Debating When?

De Blasio is in the first group on Wednesday night, along with U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, former Housing and Urban Development secretary Julian Castro, former U.S. Rep. John Delaney, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, Rep. Tim Ryan and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Gillibrand will follow on Thursday with Sen. Michael Bennet, former Vice President Joe Biden, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Kamala Harris, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Eric Swalwell, author Marianne Williamson and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

De Blasio's grouping will give him a chance to stand out from other lower-tier candidates and compete with Warren, who has been competing with Sanders for second place in the polls. Gillibrand, on the other hand, will contend with four frontrunners: Biden, Sanders, Buttigieg and Harris.

How Were The Lineups Determined?

Candidates could make the debate by getting support from 1 percent of voters in three qualifying polls, getting donations from at least 65,000 people, or both. Gillibrand got past both thresholds, while de Blasio only met the polling criteria.

The groupings for each night were reportedly chosen in a random drawing on June 14 at NBC's headquarters.

When Is The Next Debate?

The DNC will host its second round of debates in Detroit on July 30 and 31, with CNN as a broadcast partner. The committee has upped the ante for the third debate in the second week of September — they'll have to reach 2 percent in at least four polls and get donations from at least 130,000 unique contributors.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Julian Castro's title. He is a former Housing and Urban Development secretary, not a senator.