Democrats announce February debate in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — It will be the Democrat's ninth of their presidential primary cycle, coming on February 19.

NBC and MSNBC will be hosting and partnering with the online news site, "The Nevada Independent."

“This is gonna be three days before the caucus and so the great thing is, it's gonna have a huge impact on the results,” says Jon Ralston, The Nevada Independent’s Editor.

The Nevada debate joins three others the party announced Thursday in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

Iowa’s debate takes place Jan. 14, with their caucus on Feb. 3; New Hampshire’s debate takes place on Feb. 7, with their primary on Feb. 11; South Carolina’s debate takes place on Feb. 25, with its primary taking place on Feb. 29.

Our Democratic Caucus will be on Feb. 22, the third on the Democratic campaign calendar.

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“Nevada plays a crucial role in the presidential primary as the first Western state, the first diverse state, and the first battleground state to make its voice heard,” says Nevada Democratic party chair William McCurdy. “We are so excited to be hosting our Democratic presidential candidates in Las Vegas to hear them discuss the issues most important to Nevadans just days before our Feb. 22 caucus.”

Which brings us to Las Vegas debate, which Ralston says, for some candidates, could be a make-or-break moment.

“This debate will be the first big stage for them to try to maintain or regain momentum, so I think it's going to be very, very important for that standpoint,” he says.

The debate details are still being hashed out, such as the qualifications to get on stage. The party has been making it harder to get the size of the field smaller, which has caused some Democratic grumbling that the debate stage is getting less diverse.

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Diversity's important, says UNLV's Michael Green, but he says Democrats may have other priorities.

“Democrats, it seems to me, are still focused on the idea who can beat Donald Trump. I think that is ultimately going to matter more,” says Green.

Nevada has seen the debate stage before: in 2015, both Democrats and Republicans came here.

Five-years-later, there's a Republican incumbent and 15 Democrats running.

Ralson says the race is in flux, here and elsewhere. “The only smart people in the predicting business these days Jeff are the ones who say I don't know what's going to happen,” he says.