Everything you need to know for the first Democratic debate

By Amelia Fabiano 10/13/2015

Tuesday marks the first televised Democratic debate in the race to the 2016 election.

Clinton will be center stage, according to the podium order released by CNN. The positions of the other four candidates are based on poll numbers since Aug. 1, with Sanders to Clinton’s right and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley to her left. Lower placing candidates will bookend the stage, with Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee, who polled fourth and fifth respectively, on each end.

Vice President Joe Biden would be included as well, should he decide to enter the presidential race. However, he is not expected to enter before the debate.

The debate will be the first time Sanders and Clinton go head to head on issues and directly address each other as the two frontrunners. Sanders has been hinting at possibly contrasting with Clinton on Wall Street issues and also on her support of military interventions overseas.

Clinton is expected to highlight her disagreements with Sanders on other foreign policy conflicts and gun control.

O’Malley, Chafee and Webb will also have to compete with the two frontrunners to put themselves on the election map and out of the single digits in the polls.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper is moderating the forum, with CNN’s Dana Bash and Juan Carlos Lopez asking additional questions.

CNN will host the event at Wynn Las Vegas casino hotel, with live coverage starting on CNN at 8:30 pm ET, and the debate starting at 9 pm ET. This debate is sponsored by CNN and Facebook, allowing viewers to submit questions to the candidates there as well as through Instagram.

All the action can be followed on Twitter under #DemDebate.