If you had “Tom Steyer manipulates the DNC’s small donor incentives to become the dark horse to make the September debate stage” on your 2019 bingo card, get ready to collect your winnings.
After spending more than $7 million on ads, the billionaire has managed to buy — I mean earn — the 130,000 unique donor threshold and meet the requirement for the September Democratic presidential debate stage. Steyer, who entered the race late with the promise of committing $100 million of his own money to his campaign, needs just one more qualifying poll to secure his position.
And who says that our democratic process is broken?
This isn’t the first time that the DNC’s rules have run contrary to intentions. The party deliberately chose random debate stages over the undercard system used by the Republicans in 2016 to avoid the field unfairly favoring front-runners. Yet whereas the September debates of 2015 featured 15 Republicans over two debates in order to avoid a crowd, next month’s will likely pit just ten Democrats against each other on one stage. And the DNC enacted the unique donor qualification to keep a candidate from buying their way onto the debate stage, yet Steyer did just that, asking for $1 donations that probably caused him to lose money with every transaction.
Tulsi Gabbard reached the donor requirement weeks ago and has more than twice Steyer’s support in her Real Clear Politics polling average, yet the DNC’s stringent standards for qualifying pollsters will likely keep her off the debate stage. Only four of the candidates in the next debate will be neither billionaires nor current or former senators: South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.
Even better yet, you don’t just have to see Steyer on September’s stage. Assuming he gets the final poll he requires, the DNC rules dictate that he’ll qualify for the October debates too.
He can keep buying his way onto the stage, but the debate field’s winnowing may just reflect the polls. The top three candidates, Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders, have consolidated a cumulative two-thirds of the total primary support. It’s far too soon to make any predictions, but this primary may be over sooner than you think.
