Democratic Party imposes strict requirements for December debate
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced a higher threshold for candidates to qualify for the sixth Democratic primary debate in December. The debate will be co-hosted by PBS NewsHour and Politico the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs in California on December 19.
In order to qualify for the debate, candidates will need donations from 200,000 unique donors, with a minimum of 800 unique donors per state in at least 20 states. They will also have to reach a national polling threshold or a state polling threshold.
Candidates may qualify by receiving 4% support or more in at least four polls, which may be national polls or early-state polls. Otherwise, candidates may qualify by receiving 6% support or more in two single-state polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and/or Nevada. The qualifying polls must be publicly released between October 16 and December 12.
The DNC has imposed increasingly stringent requirements for each debate. Only nine of the 18 candidates have qualified for the upcoming November debate, according to a CBS News analysis:
- Joe Biden
- Cory Booker
- Pete Buttigieg
- Kamala Harris
- Bernie Sanders
- Tom Steyer
- Elizabeth Warren
- Andrew Yang
- Amy Klobuchar
The fifth 2020 Democratic primary presidential debate will take place November 20 in Georgia. Twelve candidates took the stage for the fourth debate on October 15 at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. Previous debates have also taken place in Miami, Detroit and Houston.