The Democratic National Committee announced the 20 candidates who will be participating in the first Democratic primary debates on June 26 and 27. Fourteen of the candidates met both of the criteria to qualify for the debates.
The debates are to be split up into two consecutive nights, with candidates randomly chosen to appear on each date.
To qualify for the first debate, candidates had to fulfill one of two criteria: either get 65,000 donors to their campaigns, with at least 200 donors in 20 different states, or obtain at least 1% in three polls recognized as legitimate by the committee. If more than 20 candidates had qualified for the debate, the DNC said it would choose participants with “a methodology that gives primacy to candidates meeting both thresholds, followed by the highest polling average, followed by the most unique donors.”
The same criteria will be used for the second set of debates in July.
The candidates who fulfilled both criteria and qualified for the debates
Several of the most high profile candidates have met both the donation and polling thresholds.
- Joe Biden
- Cory Booker
- Pete Buttigieg
- Julián Castro
- Tulsi Gabbard
- Kirsten Gillibrand
- Kamala Harris
- Jay Inslee
- Amy Klobuchar
- Beto O’Rourke
- Bernie Sanders
- Elizabeth Warren
- Marianne Williamson
- Andrew Yang
These candidates fulfilled one criteria and qualified for the debates
- Michael Bennet
- Bill de Blasio
- John Delaney
- John Hickenlooper
- Tim Ryan
- Eric Swalwell
Who did not qualify for the debates
- Seth Moulton: Moulton acknowledged to radio show host Hugh Hewitt that he would not meet the criteria to make the first debates on June 6, but insisted that he was not deterred.
- Steve Bullock: Bullock did not qualify because of questions over one of the three polls his campaign is citing. Bullock has publicly criticized the DNC for not including him in the debate despite his meeting the three-poll threshold.
- Mike Gravel
- Wayne Messam
