Ten presidential hopefuls are set to take the September debate stage with less than a day-and-a-half to go before the Democratic National Committee’s Wednesday night qualifying deadline, and those who will not make the cut are crying foul.
“The DNC’s debate rules disadvantage candidates who are from outside D.C. and have real experience getting things done,” Montana Gov. Steve Bullock wrote in a fundraising email sent Friday.
“If we wanted to be the party that excluded people, we’d be Republicans. These rules have created exactly the wrong outcomes. And they will NOT help us beat Donald Trump,” Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet said in a speech at the DNC summer meeting in San Francisco on Friday.
Candidates must reach 130,000 individual donors and 2% or more support in at least four DNC-approved primary polls. Candidates like Bullock and Bennet argue that this encourages candidates to “buy” donations by spending as much as $75 on digital ads to garner a $1 contribution rather than talking to voters.
Billionaire Tom Steyer is one qualifying poll away from making the stage. Though he is the latest entry in the crowded primary field, he quickly met the donor threshold in part by spending millions of dollars on digital and television ads. His three current qualifying polls are statewide rather than national polls, in places where he ran TV ads.
Also at issue is the DNC’s list of qualifying pollsters. Polls conducted by Politico/Morning Consult, Economist/YouGov and Reuters/Ipsos are among those that do not count toward qualification.
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s campaign on Friday called on the DNC to revise its list of approved polls. She has 130,000 donors and two qualifying polls.
“Rep. Gabbard has exceeded 2% support in 26 national and early state polls, but only two of them are on the DNC’s ‘certified’ list,” her campaign said in a statement. “Many of the uncertified polls, including those conducted by highly reputable organizations such as The Economist and the Boston Globe, are ranked by RealClearPolitics and FiveThirtyEight as more accurate than some DNC ‘certified’ polls.”
Steyer could also benefit from the DNC expanding its poll criteria. An August Gravis poll of likely Democratic primary voters in Nevada found Steyer with 6% support, but it does not count toward debate qualification.
The 10 candidates who have qualified for the debate on Sept. 12 in Houston, hosted by ABC in partnership with Univision, are:
- Former Vice President Joe Biden
- New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker
- South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg
- Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro
- California Sen. Kamala Harris
- Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar
- Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke
- Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
- Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
- Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang
If one more candidate qualifies, a second night of debates will be added on Sept. 13.
Debates scheduled for October will have the same qualification standards as the September debate, meaning all candidates from September automatically qualify for October. With more time to acquire qualifying polls, more candidates could debate in October than in September.
