(CNN) The Democratic National Committee on Thursday unveiled plans to host 12 debates during the 2020 presidential primary, with the first debate slotted for June 2019.

DNC Chair Tom Perez told reporters that six of the dozen debates will be held in 2019, while another six will be held in 2020. Perez said the first two debates will be in June and July of 2019, with one debate in September, October, November and December of that year. The final debate will take place in April of 2020, roughly two months before the Democratic National Convention in July 2020

The debate outlines were announced Thursday to get ahead of what is expected to be a deluge of presidential announcements in early 2019. Perez has said for months that he hoped to make debate guidelines public before the field of Democratic candidates is fully formed in an effort to avoid the calls of bias that plagued the committee in 2016.

Perez also said that none of the debates in 2019 will be held in any of the four early primary and caucus states -- Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or Nevada. Debates in those states, Perez said, would take place in the run up to each contest in early 2020.

Perez did not outline specific dates or sponsors for debates or what standards they would use to determine entrance into all their contests. But the chairman did say that the DNC -- at least initially -- will consider more than just polling when determining the threshold to qualify to the first few debates. One consideration, he said, would be grassroots fundraising.

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