The Democratic National Committee has announced that 20 candidates have qualified for the party’s first presidential debates later this month.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts were the only major candidates out of the two dozen Democratic hopefuls who failed to meet the polling or grassroots fundraising measures required to get a debate spot. Two lesser-known candidates, former Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska and Miramar, Florida, Mayor Wayne Messam, also missed the cutoff, announced Thursday.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who recently had been on the bubble, both made the debate based on polling measures.
The campaign’s opening debates, set for June 26-27 in Miami, will offer a prime opportunity for many White House hopefuls to reshape a race defined in recent weeks by former Vice President Joe Biden’s domination of national and many early state polls.
An NBC News drawing Friday will divide the large field between the first and second debate night. Party officials have promised to weight the drawing with the intention of ensuring that top tier and lagging candidates are spread roughly evenly over the two nights.
Those assignments will determine the debate strategies for many campaigns. Candidates will have to decide whether to go after front-runners such as Biden, challenge others in the pack or stand out by remaining above the fray. They must also decide how much to focus on President Donald Trump.
Some candidates have criticized the debate-qualifying rules that the party chairman, Tom Perez, set this year. The polling and fundraising thresholds will remain the same for the July debates over two nights in Detroit.
Bullock’s campaign insists he has reached a party benchmark of a minimum 1 percent in at least three polls by approved organizations. But party officials say Bullock is wrongly counting a Washington Post-ABC poll from February.
He said Thursday that he was “certainly disappointed” by the DNC’s decision.
“But the greater point really is also that I’m the only one in the field that’s actually won in a Trump state, and we need to win back some of the places we’ve lost,” he said on MSNBC.
The polling and fundraising marks will double for the third and fourth debates in September and October. Candidates will have to meet both marks instead of one or the other. That means 2 percent in the approved polls and a donor list of at least 130,000 unique contributors.
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who will appear in the first debate, questioned some of the rules during a campaign stop Thursday before the DNC announcement, but said candidates have little choice other than to meet them.
“Fighting with the DNC is a little like fighting with the weather,” he said. “You can rage against the storm, but you will not have great effect. I think the rules are the rules.”
Related Stories
‹
![]()
N Carolina Legislative Districts Set for 2020 as Appeal EndsNorth Carolina’s legislative districts are set for the 2020 elections after the state Supreme Court refused on Friday to fast-track a redistricting appeal. That decision led the plaintiffs who successfully sued based on partisan bias claims to end their legal challenges. The state’s highest court denied the request by Common Cause and state Democrats to step in […]
![]()
Still a Chance? 2020 Longshots Insist Race is Up for GrabsBernie Sanders rallied hundreds of supporters outside the New Hampshire capital when the senator formally filed to compete in the state’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary. A howling crowd cheered South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg as he walked through the statehouse to file his paperwork. When it was Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet’s turn, he wound up […]
![]()
Hathaway Pendergrass Announces 2020 Run for District Court JudgeLocal attorney Hathaway Pendergrass announced on Wednesday his intention to run for a District Court Judge seat in Orange and Chatham counties in 2020. Pendergrass made the announcement on The Ron Stutts Show on 97.9 The Hill WCHL on Wednesday morning. “It’s our community, simply put,” Pendergrass said Wednesday when announcing why he would be […]

Orange County Proposing Voting Precinct Changes Ahead of 2020 ElectionDo you know where to vote come Election Day 2020? Polling locations for Orange County residents on November 6, 2020, might change as the Orange County Board of Elections reviews local precincts maps. The goal is to provide a more efficient and convenient experience for voters across the county, according to Orange County Elections director […]

Democrats See Opening on Economy, Resist Cheering RecessionCampaigning under the stifling August sun, Joe Biden assailed President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, accusing him of squandering a strong economy and putting Americans’ financial security at risk. But he was quick to add that he was not hoping for the worst. “I never wish for a recession. Period,” the former vice president […]

Democrats Take a Look at a Practical Health Care ApproachDemocratic voters appear to be reassessing their approach to health care, a pragmatic shift on their party’s top 2020 issue. While “Medicare for All” remains hugely popular, majorities say they’d prefer building on “Obamacare” to expand coverage instead of a new government program that replaces America’s mix of private and public insurance. Highlighted by a recent national […]

Democrats Spending Millions to Try to Take Back StatehousesDemocrats still shaken by the 2010 tea party wave that netted Republicans six governors’ offices, flipped 21 statehouse chambers and drove nearly 700 Democratic state legislators from office are mounting a comeback, pouring millions of dollars into state level races. In a longtime Republican district covering a wealthy enclave of Dallas, Democratic challenger Shawn Terry […]

North Carolina GOP Rep. Grange Enters 2020 Governor's RaceA North Carolina state legislator entered the 2020 Republican gubernatorial race Thursday, a decision that denies Lt. Gov. Dan Forest a cleared path to the GOP nomination after preparing for years for a bid. State Rep. Holly Grange of Wilmington announced her candidacy in a campaign video that highlighted her as one of the first female West […]
![]()
AP-NORC Poll: Democratic Voters Not Fully Tuned in to 2020Nearly two dozen Democratic presidential candidates have crisscrossed the country for six months selling their vision for the United States. But, on the eve of the first debates in the campaign, a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows most Democratic voters haven’t fully tuned in. Only 22% of Democrats registered […]
![]()
Democrats Up Requirements for 2nd Round of Primary DebatesThe Democratic National Committee is upping the ante for its second round of presidential primary debates, doubling the polling and grassroots fundraising requirements from its initial summer debates. The parameters, announced Wednesday, are likely to help cull a crop of 24 candidates and, in the process, intensify scrutiny on Democratic Chairman Tom Perez and his pledge to give […]
›
Comments on Chapelboro are moderated according to our Community Guidelines