Democratic Presidential Debate Moved From UCLA To Loyola Marymount
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – A Democratic presidential primary debate that was slated to take place at UCLA in December has been moved to Loyola Marymount University due to a labor dispute.
PBS, which will air the debate, announced Friday that it will take place on Dec. 19 at Loyola Marymount. The school confirmed it will be held at the Gersten Pavilion.
The debate was initially supposed to take place at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. However, on Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee chose to change the venue due to an ongoing labor dispute involving the University of California and AFSCME Local 3299, which represents more than 25,000 UC service and patient technical workers.
Liz Perlman, the union's executive director, had said they had reached out to Democratic candidates asking them to "honor the three-year boycott that we've had in place for any speaker attending any event on any of the University of California Campuses."
To qualify for the debate, candidates must be polling at 4 percent in four national polls or at 5 percent in two single-state polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and/or Nevada.
The debate, the sixth of the Democratic primary presidential campaign season, is being co-sponsored by PBS NewsHour and Politico.
"We welcome the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates to campus, continuing LMU's long-standing tradition of rigorous inquiry, debate, and civic engagement," LMU President Dr. Timothy Law Snyder said in a statement. "As a nationally renowned, highly ranked university in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions, LMU is a destination for world leaders whose ideas confront humankind's most challenging issues. Together, we seek to create the world we want to live in."