Nine Democratic presidential candidates have accepted the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s invitation to participate in a CNN town hall next month focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer issues. HRC is billing the October 10 town hall in Los Angeles, “Power of our Pride,” and it coincides with the 31st anniversary of National Coming Out Day on October 11. It will air live on CNN from 7 p.m. ET to 11:30 p.m. ET. HRC says it will be the largest audience for a Democratic presidential town hall devoted to LGBTQ issues.
Two candidates will appear back-to-back each hour throughout the evening and take questions from the audience and a CNN moderator. In addition to announcing the participants, CNN also named the moderators for the event and the approximate times each candidate will appear on stage. All times below are in Eastern.
- Businessman Tom Steyer will be interviewed by CNN’s Dana Bash at 7 p.m.
- New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker will be interviewed by Bash at 7:30 p.m.
- Former Vice President Joe Biden will be interviewed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper at 8 p.m.
- California Sen. Kamala Harris, will be interviewed by Cooper at 8:30 p.m.
- Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren will be interviewed by CNN’s Chris Cuomo at 9 p.m.
- South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg will be interviewed by Cuomo at 9:30 p.m.
- Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke will be interviewed by CNN’s Don Lemon at 10 p.m.
- Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar will be interviewed by Lemon at 10:30 p.m.
- Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro will be interviewed by Cooper at 11 p.m.
Citing scheduling conflicts, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and businessman Andrew Yang each declined HRC’s invitation to participate in the event. Additional invitations will be extended to candidates who meet the DNC qualifications before September 25.
Invitations to participate in the LGBTQ-focused town hall have been extended to Democratic presidential hopefuls who meet the DNC’s qualifications for the October 2019 primary debates. Candidates must reach 2% in at least four national polls identified by the DNC to determine eligibility. The polls for this town hall must be released between June 28, 2019 and September 25, 2019.
In addition, candidates must also meet the donor threshold outlined by the DNC for the October debate, in which they must have 130,000 unique donors, including 400 donors each from at least 20 states.
An HRC Foundation spokesperson said the audience will be comprised of invited guests, LGBTQ stakeholders and members of civic organizations. No public tickets will be available for the event, which will take place at The Novo.