Former Democratic Maryland Rep. and presidential candidate John Delaney expressed his displeasure with the new criteria the Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced for the third primary debate, during a Thursday night interview with Sandra Smith.
The two requirements a candidate could reach to qualify for the first and second debates are earning at least one percent of the vote in three national or early-primary-state polls conducted by designated polls, or by receiving donations from 65,000 unique donors, including a minimum of 200 donors in at least 20 states. To qualify for the third debate, each candidate needs to poll 2% in four predetermined polls and accumulate 130,000 individual donors, the DNC announced Wednesday.
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“Well, I’d just like to know how they came up with [the criteria]. I understand the goal of the DNC, which is to narrow the field, and I don’t actually have an issue with that I understand why this they are doing that, that makes sense. But these criteria that they’ve came up with to me seem somewhat arbitrary. I mean the polling standard makes total sense but then they have this donor criteria,” Delaney added. (RELATED: 2020 Democrats Private Woo Wall Street While Publicly Snubbing Corporate Cash)
“I just don’t understand where that came from or what the thinking is behind that and I don’t actually think it’s a good idea because as best I can tell as someone who has campaigned all other this country, a lot of Americans are struggling,” he continued. “About 50% of the American people can’t afford basic necessities like their housing or their utilities or their food. So if you look at the percentage of American people that give money to political candidates, it’s actually a pretty small percentage.”
Delaney went on to discuss the letter he sent to DNC chair Tom Perez, questioning how they came up with said requirements.
At this moment, 19 presidential candidate have qualified for the first presidential debate, which is scheduled to take place over a two-day period at the end of June. Comparatively, only eight candidates have reached the two-percent threshold thus far. Six candidates of those candidates have already or are likely to have reached the donation requirement as of Wednesday, according to Politico.