What Time Is the Republican Debate and How to Watch

The debate, hosted by NBC News in Miami, will be held from 8 to 10 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday.

Share full article

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, where the third Republican presidential primary debate will be held on Wednesday. Five candidates are set to participate.

The third debate of the Republican presidential primary takes place on Wednesday, Nov. 8, from 8 to 10 p.m. Eastern time.

The debate, sanctioned by the Republican National Committee and hosted by NBC News, will be held in Miami.

Where can I watch it?

Several platforms will broadcast the debate:

NBC will show the debate. The event can also be streamed at NBCNews.com and on NBC News Now, which is available on Peacock and other streaming services. Coverage beforehand will start at 7 p.m. on NBC News Now, and post-debate coverage will run through 11 p.m. on both NBC and NBC News Now.
Salem Radio Network, a debate partner, and Sky News will both have the debate on their stations, as will the streaming platform Rumble.
Noticias Telemundo will broadcast the debate with Spanish translations on its website, mobile app and social media accounts. Universo, a Spanish-language NBC affiliate, will also broadcast the debate with translations.

Which candidates will be onstage?

Only five candidates qualified for this debate, down from seven who qualified for the previous debate in September. They are:

Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey.
Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida.
Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and former United Nations ambassador.
Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur.
Tim Scott, a senator from South Carolina.

Under criteria set by the Republican National Committee, candidates needed to have at least 70,000 unique donors (up from 50,000 for the second debate) and to record at least 4 percent support (up from 3 percent) in either two national polls or one national poll in addition to two polls from early-voting states.

Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota failed to meet the increased requirements: He surpassed the donor threshold, but did not reach 4 percent in enough polls. The seventh candidate who was at the September debate, former Vice President Mike Pence, ended his campaign in October.

Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas participated in the first debate in August but did not qualify for the second, and he did not come close to qualifying for the third. Mr. Hutchinson fell short of both the donor and polling requirements.

What about Trump?

Former President Donald J. Trump, the overwhelming front-runner in the Republican primary campaign, has chosen not to participate in any of the debates. (He has far exceeded the donor and polling requirements but has refused to sign an R.N.C.-required pledge to support the party’s nominee, which means he has not technically qualified.)

Mr. Trump plans to hold a rally in Hialeah, Fla., to draw attention away from the debate — as he did in September, when he gave a speech in Detroit, and in August, when he did an interview with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Who is moderating the debate?

Lester Holt and Kristen Welker of NBC News will moderate alongside the conservative talk-show host Hugh Hewitt.

Mr. Holt, the anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” and Ms. Welker, who recently became the host of “Meet the Press,” both have moderation experience: Mr. Holt helped lead a Democratic primary debate in 2020 as well as a general-election debate in 2016, and Ms. Welker moderated a general-election debate in 2020.

Mr. Hewitt’s show runs on Salem Radio Network, which is a co-sponsor of the debate.

Maggie Astor covers politics for The New York Times, focusing on breaking news, policies, campaigns and how underrepresented or marginalized groups are affected by political systems. More about Maggie Astor