The Democratic presidential debate is 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time. It is being held in Las Vegas and hosted by NBC, MSNBC and The Nevada Independent.

The debate is taking place three days before the Nevada caucuses on Saturday.

This is the first debate to include former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York. He will join five other Democratic candidates: Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont; former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.; Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind.; and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

Riding a wave of several hundred million dollars worth of advertising – and despite the onslaught of negative information about his opinions on race, stop-and-frisk, and his past support for Republicans – former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has climbed to second place in some recent national polling of Democratic presidential candidates.

As a result, Bloomberg won a place on stage at Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential candidate debate in Las Vegas.

The Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas on Wednesday just got much more interesting.

A poll released Tuesday made former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg eligible to take the stage for the first time since launching his campaign in late November.

His rivals will be out to get him.

The billionaire businessman has been rising sharply in the polls — a fact that virtually everyone, friend or foe, attributes to his colossal spending on TV advertising.