A swath of second- and third-tier Democratic presidential candidates, already struggling to stand out in a 23-person field, say the party’s fundraising rules give more incentive to impersonal contacts on Facebook rather than face-to-face meetings with potential supporters.
At issue are Democratic National Committee rules on polling and donor thresholds critics say are meant to quickly thin the crowded Democratic field to the eventual nominee, who will challenge President Trump in 2020. To participate in the first and second rounds of debates in June and July, candidates were required to get 65,000 individual donors, with at least 200 from 20 different states, or garner at least 1% support in three approved primary polls.
That’s put a premium on digital fundraising on Facebook and other platforms, and in a hurry. Lesser-known candidates say it’s coming at the expense of traditional grassroots meetings to meet voters and then ask for a donation.
Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, who has built an extensive campaign team in Iowa but receives 0% to 1% in most polls, complained that the rules have created a “social media primary.”
“When they effectively say you’ve got to have 130,000 donors, they’re telling candidates, ‘Don’t hire people in Iowa, spend money on Facebook ads,’” Delaney, who in July 2017 became the first candidate to announce his presidential bid, told reporters during a campaign stop at the Des Moines, Iowa, farmer’s market earlier this month.
Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan also expressed concerns about the rules.
“You have candidates now spending $25, they’re saying $50 to $75 to get a $1 contribution. That doesn’t seem like a good use of our time and money,” Ryan told the Washington Examiner after he spoke at the Des Moines pride festival on June 8.
Ryan appeared to be referring to what campaigns pay to digital firms to acquire new donors. Betsy Hoover, a Democratic digital strategist, said in May that the price per new donor could range from $25 to $75.
Delaney and Ryan are two of the six candidates who appear to have qualified for the first round of debates via the polling threshold, but have not announced meeting the 65,000 donor requirement.
Delaney, Ryan, and others cannot plan on maintaining their places on the debate stage in the future without more donors. Meeting both standards helps secure a spot in the event more than 20 candidates qualify for the second debates in July, and it looks likely that tie-breaking procedures will come into play: Montana Gov. Steve Bullock appears to have met the polling threshold for the second debates after falling short in the first round.
Qualification standards are higher for the third and fourth round of debates in September and October: Candidates need at least 130,000 donors in addition to at least 2% support in four polls to secure a spot.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York is one of the candidates spending heavily on Facebook ads. From May 18 to June 16, Gillibrand’s campaign spent $587,454 on Facebook ads, more than twice as much as it spent in the preceding 60 days. Many recent ads warn that “The DNC could CUT candidates from the next round of debates if they don’t have 130,000 individual donors.”
Gillibrand initially lagged in reaching the 65,000 before announcing that she reached the debate donor threshold in on June 10, just days before the DNC deadline for qualification.
Andrew Yang, a businessman who pitches a universal basic income welfare system in which every person gets $1,000 per month, spends about as much on Facebook ads as top-tier candidates such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and California Sen. Kamala Harris. From March 19 to June 16, Yang’s campaign spent $870,063 on Facebook ads, while Harris spent $869,799 and Sanders spent $641,403 over the same period. Yang said in a tweet Sunday that his campaign has 122,000 donors, only 8,000 from the 130,000 threshold for the third and fourth debates.
Ryan suggested that the perverse incentives inherent in the debate rules could hurt the Democratic Party as a whole in the long run.
“Why wouldn’t you want to have all of your candidates building grand games in Iowa, so when you go to the fall, you’ve got your organization in conjunction with the state party?” Ryan told the Washington Examiner. “Instead of us all having teams in these states, we’re all putting money into an online campaign for $1 contributions. It doesn’t make any sense.”
