Biden will be only candidate at center stage in Democratic debate

Former Vice President Joe Biden will be the lone candidate at the center of the stage during Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate.

PBS NewsHour and Politico, the two news outlets sponsoring the event, announced the podium order for the debate on Tuesday. With only seven candidates expected to appear on stage, Thursday’s debate will be the first in which only a single candidate will take the middle podium. 

{mosads}Biden will be flanked by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to his right and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to his left. On Warren’s side of the stage will be South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) and tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang. Standing on Sanders’s side will be Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer.

The podium order was chosen based on the candidates’ averages in Democratic National Committee–approved polls conducted since the last debate on Nov. 20. The highest polling candidate — in this case Biden — was given the centerstage podium. 

The Thursday debate in Los Angeles will be the first one of the 2020 election cycle to feature an odd number of candidates. The last debate, in November, included 10 hopefuls, while the one before that, in October, featured a 12-person lineup.

Thursday’s debate, the final one of 2019, is set to begin at 8 p.m.