Who Will Make The Third Democratic Debate (And Who Could Miss It)

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Time is running out for Democratic candidates to make the third presidential primary debate in September. There are about two weeks left to qualify, and because of the debate’s higher thresholds, it’s likely that there won’t be 20 candidates — although the debate may still span two nights. Nine candidates have already qualified by our count, and a handful of others could also make it. (In previous debates, the Democratic National Committee capped the stage at 10 participants each night, but it hasn’t yet specified what it will do for the third debate.)

However, it is unlikely that the debate field will grow much beyond 12 or 13 candidates, as it’s much harder to qualify this time than it was for the previous two debates. Not only do candidates have to meet both the polling and donor requirements, but they also must meet higher thresholds. To qualify, candidates must attract at least 2 percent support in four qualifying national or early-state polls released between June 28 and Aug. 28, and they must also have 130,000 unique donors (including at least 400 individual donors in at least 20 states).

Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang is the latest to join the ranks of those to make the stage, having gotten his fourth qualifying survey last week. (He already met the donor mark in early July.) And former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro is right on the cusp — he has hit the donor requirement and needs just one more poll.

Castro isn’t the only other candidate who’s close to making the third debate. There are three others who stand a reasonable chance of qualifying. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has already surpassed the 130,000 contributor mark, but she has just one qualifying poll to Castro’s three, so it will be tougher for her to get three more polls by Aug. 28. Not that this has stopped Gabbard from trying: In an email to supporters, she encouraged them to sign up for online survey panels and to answer calls from unknown numbers that might be a pollster dialing.

Meanwhile, despite jumping into the race only in early July, billionaire activist Tom Steyer may be in an even better position than Gabbard, having already hit at least 2 percent in three of the four qualifying polls he needs. Now it’s just a matter of hitting 2 percent in one more poll and clearing the donor requirement, which his campaign said in an email to supporters last week that it could do “as soon as” this week. It doesn’t hurt that Steyer has a huge organizing advantage — he can draw on the more than 8 million email addresses amassed by Need to Impeach, an anti-Trump group Steyer founded, not to mention additional contacts from NextGen, another Steyer organization.

The third candidate who seems to have a shot of making the stage (albeit a long shot) is New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who got her first qualifying poll last week. She still needs three more polls to qualify and, as of Aug. 7, approximately 30,000 more contributors to meet the donor requirement, but she’s still much further ahead than the other bottom-tier candidates.

In fact, the rest of the Democratic field will likely not make the cut. While former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has one qualifying poll to his name, he reportedly had only 13,000 donors as of July 2. (He may also be exploring a possible Senate run back in Colorado.) Two other candidates, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and author Marianne Williamson, have reportedly surpassed 100,000 contributors but have yet to hit 2 percent in any qualifying surveys. As for the remaining seven candidates deemed “major” by FiveThirtyEight, none seems remotely close to 130,000 donors, and none has a single qualifying poll yet.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/who-will-make-the-third-democratic-debate-and-who-could-miss-it/

[roody]

1. No pollster has ever called me in my 66 years.

[ancianita]

5. Me, neither.

[Hortensis]

2. Probably "only" 12-13 candidates. Could be worse.

Last edited Tue Aug 13, 2019, 02:33 PM - Edit history (1)

I'd love those I consider embarrass the party to be gone.

Steyer is an obscure self aggrandizer who couldn't produce 1000 people who knew and wanted him to run for anything before entering, but he's a billionaire so can write checks to agents who'll design a "populist" candidacy that can round up enough supporters to qualify? We're the Democratic Party, not the Republican. Let him leave the populist pose to be forgotten and forgiven (maybe), put in 8 years of genuine service to community and nation, then run for congress.

And Gabbard ran for congress as a Democrat to represent her overwhelmingly Democratic district. I'd like to leave her disposition to their discretion.

Seth Moulton, Tim Ryan. #FiveWhiteMen? 'Nuf said.

[msongs]

3. now we know why steyer was really doing emails for impeach nt

[justhanginon]

4. Same thing I was thinking when I read that. Billionaires

are used to getting their own way, money being no object.

[LeftTurn3623]

6. As much as I like some of the candidates not doing well

I would like to see this dropped a lot

Biden - Warren - Sanders - Harris - Buttigieg - Beto

The article says its a lot harder to get in the next debate. Really 2% is a lot harder? There had been 4 debates - 2 times each person had a chance to make an impact. That is more than fair. The fact that Warren hasn't been on the same stage as Biden or Harris is ridiculous.

[IronLionZion]

7. Gallup called me for an Obama poll years ago

I haven't had a land line in many years, just cell phone.