Round 2….FIGHT!
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced the 2020 Democratic candidates who reached the threshold to qualify for the second round of debates. CNN will host the debates on July 30 and 31 in Detroit, MI.
The DNC listed the 20 candidates:
Why yes, the debate will feature a candidate we did not see last time. Bullock did not qualify for the first debate but will take the stage to replace Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA). He dropped out of the race earlier this month.
The debate will not have Rep. Seth Moulton (MA), Mayor Wayne Messam, investor Tom Steyer, or former Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak.
So how will the DNC and CNN avoid the fiasco of the first debate? From Politico:
The network and the DNC announced Wednesday that candidates will first be split into three tiers, before being randomly split across the two nights. The tiers are based off public polling.Tier three (highest polling): Former Vice President Joe Biden, California Sen. Kamala Harris, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.Tier two: New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke and businessman Andrew Yang.Tier one: Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan and author Marianne Williamson.
Tonight on Anderson Cooper’s show CNN will hold a live random drawing to determine which candidate appears on what night. They hope splitting the candidates into three tiers will avoid the top candidates all appearing with each other on stage.
In order to qualify, the candidates had to reach “at least 1% support in three polls from an approved list of pollsters or received campaign contributions from 65,000 unique donors, including 200 donors each from 20 different states.”
I guess people decided to harness the love like Williamson preached at the end of the first debate because her support swelled up enough to push her into the second debate. Then again, after the amusement of her actions in the first round, Republicans urged people to donate to Williamson’s campaign so she can make it to the second round.
I’m excited Andrew Yang made the cut. I am not into his ideas or policies, but I found him to be the only coherent non-abrasive candidate on the stage during the first debate. Unfortunately, the moderators largely ignored him.
[Featured image via CNN]
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