The Democratic National Committee plans to announce a 2020 presidential primary debate schedule before Christmas and is taking special care to make sure enough are held and all the candidates — potentially a dozen — have equal time to present their case.
“When I ran for DNC chair, I said one of the things we’re going to do to rebuild trust is to make sure we set out a primary debate calendar long in advance of who we know will be in the race because the goal, our job, is to make sure that everybody gets a fair shake and the process is fair. Fair in fact, fair in perception,” Party Chairman Tom Perez said.
He said that “before Christmas” he will present the number of planned debates, the starting date, and other details.
“The goal is to make sure that people can kick the tires on the candidates. The goal is to make sure that the candidates can have a fair shake and a fair opportunity to make their case,” he said at a Christian Science Monitor-sponsored media roundtable.
The Democratic Party in 2016 suffered from claims that it was favoring former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton too heavily and skewed the political calendar to help her.
Across the aisle, Republicans started with more than a dozen candidates and held several debates, a model that is being looked at.
While several Democrats have indicated they plan to run in the primary, just how many are not known. Perez twice said the number 12 in stressing that he and other Democratic leaders want to make sure that every candidate is treated equally.
“I want to make sure, if we have a dozen candidates for president, 11 of those 12 aren’t going to make it to the mountaintop. I want to make sure that everybody feels like their candidate got a fair shake because what we have to ensure coming out of the convention is that we have the wind at our back, we have unity, and we have excitement,” the chairman said.
