Now that former Pennsylvania congressman Joe Sestak has entered the race, there are now 24 Democratic candidates for the presidency (excluding Mike Gravel, who’s not running to win). That’s right – one candidate for every can of beer in a case. Or every hour in a day. Or both. Mercifully, all 24 won’t be onstage for the party’s first official debates, but there are nevertheless so many contenders who met the criteria for participation that the event has been split up into two nights.

The prospect of a two-dozen-candidate field in a primary for an election which ultimately won’t be decided for over a year would make anyone want to grab the nearest adult beverage. So we created a drinking game for you. Please imbibe responsibly, or in other words, don’t let yourself get to a state where you might think it’d be a good idea to throw your name in the ring as the 25th candidate.

As a refresher, here’s the lineup for each night…

Night 1: Wednesday, June 26

Take a sip of your drink every time each of these words or phrases is mentioned:

Forever war

People of color

Climate change

Midwest

Break up Big Tech

Tax cut

Iran

My wife





Finish your drink and order another if…

The audience starts booing

John Delaney complains he’s not getting any time to talk

Any number of candidates start speaking Spanish

Beto O’Rourke says ‘fuck’

Somebody calls out Tulsi Gabbard’s ties to Bashar al-Assad

Cory Booker starts talking about Newark

The camera pans out to Julián Castro’s identical twin brother in the audience

Amy Klobuchar rolls her eyes

There’s a Star Wars reference

Anyone develops visible sweat stains

Somebody incorrectly pronounces the word ‘nuclear’ as ‘nucular’

Tim Ryan reminds everyone that he challenged Nancy Pelosi for House leadership

Elizabeth Warren slyly points out that both she and Bill de Blasio are fans of the Boston Red Sox

Take a shot if…

A candidate who didn’t make the cut for the debates shows up anyway

Trump tweets about ‘Pocahontas’ mid-debate

An audience member rushes the stage, grabs a mic, and starts ranting about climate change. Take two shots if said audience member has a man-bun

Any candidate or moderator brings up Bill DeBlasio’s incident in which he dropped NYC’s Groundhog Day groundhog and it later died of internal injuries

In an attempt to act cool, someone starts dropping rap lyrics

A sex scandal involving a member of Congress who is not running for president breaks while the debate is airing

Night 2: Thursday, June 27



You’re hungover from last night, so…

Have a drink before the whole thing starts (we won’t judge)

Take a sip of your drink every time each of these words or phrases is mentioned:

White working class

Automation

Hillary Clinton

Socialism

Impeach

Concentration camps

Boomers

Student loans

Finish your drink and order another if…

The audience starts booing

Someone comes up with a cheeky new version of the ‘MAGA’ slogan – e.g. “We’re going to make America _____ again!”

Bernie Sanders says ‘the American people’ while pointing one of his fingers at the audience

Pete Buttigieg talks about his marriage

Andrew Yang refers to the fact that he’s Asian

One of the moderators stumbles over the word “Hickenlooper”

Kamala Harris rolls her eyes

Someone takes a dig at Donald Trump’s appearance

There’s a Harry Potter reference

Marianne Williamson is called out for her skepticism about vaccines

Joe Biden mentions Amtrak

While live-tweeting the debate, Trump comes up with a new nickname for anyone onstage

Any candidate starts talking about how much weed he/she used to smoke

Take a shot if…