Who's in the Democratic Debates, and Who's in Danger of Missing Them [View all]

[Omaha Steve]

By MAGGIE ASTOR, DENISE LU and MATT STEVENS APRIL 29, 2019



As you may have heard, the first Democratic presidential debate will be split across two nights, June 26 and 27, because there are so many candidates: 20 and counting.

What you may not have heard is that the debate qualifications are turning out to be relatively easy to meet — to the point that they may cause embarrassment for some Democrats.

First, let’s lay out the qualifications: A candidate either has to receive donations from 65,000 people (including 200 donors apiece in 20 states) or has to register 1 percent support in three polls. Only polls from a preset list of organizations are accepted, and candidates cannot count two polls from the same pollster in the same place.

The potential for embarrassment is this: According to a New York Times analysis, seven candidates will qualify based on polling but not, as of now, based on donors. Hitting 1 percent support in polls is a breeze for most candidates — it’s less than the margin of error. But these seven Democrats risk appearing like they are skating onto the debate stage because of a really low poll threshold, not because of appeal among grass-roots donors.

FULL story: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/29/us/politics/democratic-primary-debates-2020.html