For any Democrats anxious about whether any of the party’s top presidential candidates are electable enough to take on President Trump and hoping for another alternative to join, the window for a viable candidate to join the race is quickly closing.
Hillary Clinton, Michael Bloomberg, and Eric Holder are all rumored to have considered joining the race after seeing Joe Biden lose steam in his candidacy and Elizabeth Warren gain momentum, with some Democrats worrying that Warren could turn off swing-state voters.
Dick’s Sporting Goods CEO Ed Stack, a longtime Republican donor, is also rumored to be considering a presidential run as a third-party candidate.
But candidates hoping to compete for early state nominating contests must consider filing deadlines, which begin in early November, giving potential candidates only a few weeks to announce their candidacy and create any campaign infrastructure.
New Hampshire’s Democratic primary ballot access filing deadline for the Feb. 11 first-in-the-nation primary is Nov. 15. Deadlines for March 3 Super Tuesday states Alabama, Arkansas, and California are Nov. 8, Nov. 12, and Nov. 26, respectively. Most of the 10 other states expected to hold primaries on Super Tuesday have ballot access deadlines in December.
Those hoping to make a splash in the first-in-the-nation Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses have a bit more time, with a Jan. 19 deadline. Nevada’s deadline for the Feb. 22 caucuses is Jan. 1, and South Carolina’s Feb. 29 primary has a Dec. 4 deadline.
Requirements for filing vary by state, with some requiring candidates to submit thousands of signatures from residents who support their candidacy and many state parties requiring contributions of up to $2,500 to the state party to be on the ballot.
State primaries and caucuses are important because they dictate how states will allocate pledged delegates to vote for candidates at the Democratic National Convention. But Richard Winger, editor of Ballot Access News, noted that participating in any or all the primaries is not technically necessary to secure the party’s presidential nomination.
“Back in 1968, Hubert Humphrey didn’t run in a single Democratic presidential primary, but he still got the nomination,” Winger told the Washington Examiner. “If the convention is deadlocked on the first ballot and even the second ballot, anyone can get nominated whether they run in the primaries or not. I mean, the real purpose of primaries is to choose delegates to the national convention, and the party can do what it wants once it’s in a convention, especially when they’re deadlocked.”
Automatic delegates, also called “superdelegates,” are not required to pledge support to any candidate and will vote at the 2020 convention if no candidate is chosen during the first round of voting. Brokered conventions, however, are rare.
Any candidate who jumps in at this late stage also runs the risk of frustrating Democratic voters already overwhelmed by a large field of presidential hopefuls.
“I don't think we need more people. I think we need less,” Leann Cortimiglia, a 61-year-old retired nurse from Coralville, Iowa, told the Washington Examiner. “I think the Democrats are tired of having so many voices at the table.”
Lower-tier Democratic presidential hopefuls have used speculation about Clinton or others joining the race and anxiety about current front-runners as an opportunity to renew their pitch as to why they should be the party's nominee.
"To those Democrats who are looking for an alternative right now," New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker said at the National Press Club in Washington on Wednesday, "I want to make the case today very directly: Look no further."
Naomi Lim contributed to this story.