Thanks to stricter requirements from the Democratic Party, the next presidential debates will be much smaller than the three-hour, two-night, 20-candidate circus that took place this week.
Democratic candidates are preparing for the third set of debates, to be hosted by ABC News and Univision on Sept. 12 and 13 at Texas Southern University in Houston.
The presidential hopefuls were looking ahead even before the second set of debates finished on Wednesday. Several of the 20 participants mentioned their websites onstage and urged viewers to support them so they can make it to the next round.
Despite their efforts, some won’t make the cut due to the Democratic National Committee’s restrictions on who can qualify.
As of July 31, only the seven front-runners ― Former Vice President Joe Biden; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.); South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg; Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) ― had qualified for the September debates.
To be on the next debate stage, candidates must have more than 2% support in at least four national polls or polls from early-voting states, such as Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina. The candidates must also raise funds from at least 130,000 individual donors and show that they have 400 unique donors from at least 20 different states. All qualifying donations must be made before August 28 and must be endorsed by DNC-approved donation tools such as ActBlue.
Along with the seven Democrats already set to appear, three candidates are close to qualifying. Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro and entrepreneur Andrew Yang have only met the donor requirement. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has only met the polling requirement.
Not everyone is happy with the stringency of the new requirements. The DNC rejected Yang’s attempt to qualify via polling because two polls he cited — from The Wall Street Journal and SurveyMonkey — were both conducted by NBC. Yang and his campaign team, better known as the Yang Gang, disputed that argument and accused the DNC of changing the rules.
There are still 15 other candidates who have yet to meet either requirement. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) is the only Democratic presidential candidate to appear in a debate who has dropped out so far, but others may follow if they don’t make it to the next debate.
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Candidates have a long way to go before the Democratic debate madness ends.
The DNC is aiming to hold up to 12 debates to give “greater exposure to the party’s base, as well as to allow the candidates to reach different media,” DNC president Tom Pérez said in a statement.
The presidential nominee won’t be announced until July 2020 during the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee. This means candidates have almost a full year of campaigning ahead to convince voters they’re the one to take down Trump.