DNC raises threshold for November debate

The Democratic National Committee has slightly raised the bar to qualify for the November primary debate, in a move that is not likely to significantly reduce the number of candidates.

Candidates will have to win 3% of the vote in four DNC-approved ballots, compared to the 2% required to qualify for the September and October debates. But the committee also created another qualifying process for early states: it garnered 5% of the vote in two approved polls conducted in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

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In addition, applicants are now required to receive donations from 165,000 unique donors – up from 130,000 in the September and October debates – and 600 unique donors in 20 states, territories or the District of Columbia.

The new thresholds represent the DNC's latest attempt to balance its mandate of eliminating the ground while facing exclusion complaints from candidates with an impressive resume, including incumbent senators and governors, which could not reach the previous objectives below and the donors.

Even some of the top candidates who appeared in each of the first three debates were forced to tweak their strategies to increase the number of their polls or their campaign for small donors on Facebook, often spending more to advertise that they were not. money received back.

The DNC largely left existing tests for candidates in place, with only slightly higher bars to be crossed. For the main threshold of 3%, candidates still can not count twice the polls published by the same sponsor in the same geographical area. But in the highest trajectory, 5% in the first states, candidates may repeat polls with the same sponsor in the same geographical area, a nod to the scarcity of early polls.

Polls must be published between September 13 and seven days before the November debate – the timing of which has not yet been announced – for the qualification to be taken into account. The list of approved survey sponsors was slightly modified to specify news agencies with survey partnerships. For example, NBC News partnerships with the Wall Street Journal and Marist College are included, but NBC News / SurveyMonkey surveys that count for the third and fourth debates are now excluded.

In addition, applicants are now required to receive donations from 165,000 unique donors – up from 130,000 in the September and October debates – and 600 unique donors in 20 states, territories or the District of Columbia. The deadline for funding is the same: seven days before the November debate.

The new thresholds will not be a challenge for the higher echelons of candidates. Candidates like Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren could all reach the ballot box on Tuesday. Each of them received at least 5% of the results of a survey published in the Des Moines Register / Mediacom / CNN Iowa registry, and the University of Monmouth publishes a survey conducted Tuesday morning in the New Hampshire.

The other six candidates who qualified for the October debate are less certain of qualifying for the November debate. Some – like the Meaning. Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar, the former Rep. Beto O 'Rourke and businessman Andrew Yang – have already received at least 3% of the votes in at least one of the three DNC-approved ballots that count for the November debate made public until October. Now. .

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro and businessman Tom Steyer, both qualified for the October debate, have reached at least 3% in none of the three polls published to date. now. In addition, representative Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii is only one poll to do the October debate – she must win 2% again before the deadline next week – but has no more reaches 3% for the November debate.

The number of donors updated for many candidates was not immediately available, but all of the above-mentioned candidates have at least 130,000 unique donors. The remaining candidates who have not yet qualified for the October debate remain an even longer shot to arrive on stage in November.