Tighter Standards Could Make It Hard For Julián Castro To Qualify For November Presidential Debate

“The trouble for some candidates is going to be getting at least 3% in the national polls or 5% in two early primary and caucus states.”

By Jill AmentSeptember 24, 2019 10:32 am

The Democratic National Committee, or DNC, announced Monday it’s raising the standards for a candidate to qualify for future presidential debates. But that could mean that Texan candidate Julián Castro will struggle to qualify for the fifth debate in November. The requirements for the fourth debate in Ohio in October haven’t changed.

Mark Jones is a political science professor and runs the Presidential Elections Program at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. He says for the third and fourth debates, candidates needed at least 2% support in four different polls, and 130,000 individual donors. Here’s what he says candidates will need to qualify for the fifth debate in November:

– Three percent support in four polls approved by the DNC

– Or, 5% support in two early primary and caucus states: New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina

– 160,000 individual donors

“The donor threshold’s gonna be pretty easy,” Jones says. “The trouble for some candidates is going to be getting at least 3% in the national polls or 5% in two early primary and caucus states.”

What you’ll hear in this segment:

– Who will likely qualify for the fifth debate, and who will struggle

– Why Castro will have a particularly hard time qualifying

– Whether the requirements are fair, and what the DNC hopes to accomplish through them

 

Written by Caroline Covington.