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Tom Perez, the chairman of the committee, announced that the party would hold six debates in 2019 and the rest in the first six months of 2020. In a shift from tradition, none are scheduled for the early-primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada until 2020.
With nearly three dozen Democrats pondering a presidential bid, party officials anticipate a rush of candidates eager to grab a spot in the nationally televised forums. Depending on the size of the field, the committee may decide to split the debate over two consecutive evenings in the same location, Perez said, and would conduct a random selection process that would take place publicly to determine which candidates speak on which nights. He did not elaborate on how that process might work.
Perez said the committee had not set a maximum number of candidates who could appear on the stage and was planning for the possibility of a “double-digit field.”
“We will likely have a large field of candidates,” he said. “We expect that large field and we welcome that large field. Accommodating a large field of such qualified candidates is a first-class problem to have.”
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The new process is a direct response to criticism leveled during the 2016 campaign that the committee organized the debate schedule to favor Hillary Clinton, the eventual party nominee. Her two primary opponents, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, accused the party’s leadership of creating a “rigged” process by limiting the number of debates to six — two of which were scheduled for Saturday evenings and one for a Sunday. Eventually the committee sanctioned four more debates.
For the 2020 campaigns, the committee plans to change the threshold for participation to include factors beyond just the polling numbers, such as grassroots fundraising support, to capture candidates who may have support that is not showing up in public polls. Many questions remain unanswered, including how the party will determine how many candidate are “too many” for a single debate stage, and what to do once the field begins to narrow.
“We want to make sure that the grassroots have a real say in who our next nominee is,” Perez said. “Grassroots fundraising is one method of ensuring participation from candidates who may have a different background and profile and base of support.”
The first debate will take place in June 2019 and the last in April 2020. The committee will not sanction a candidate’s participation in any other debates, though forums hosted by other groups, including cable TV networks, are permitted as long as only one candidate appears on the stage at a time. The first primary contest, the Iowa caucuses, is scheduled for Feb. 3, 2020, the same day early voting will open in California. Early voting in Vermont will begin a few weeks before, if the current schedule holds.
The two-night format differs from the way Republicans handled their big field in 2016, when more than a dozen candidates were entered. Officials created a format of two debates on the same night, based on poll numbers, with some candidates relegated to an early faceoff that was not nationally televised.
Perez, whose stewardship of the Democratic committee has been attacked by some members of his own party, called the plan the “most inclusive debate process in our history.” He said the committee’s goal was to give all the candidates an opportunity to express their vision to voters while also avoiding weakening the eventual nominee for the general election.
The process comes after extensive consultation with Democratic politicians, strategists and activists, including former and current advisers to both Clinton and Sanders, and potential media partners for the events. To avoid any perception of bias, the committee did not consult with any potential 2020 candidates or their aides.
Aides to Sanders said the committee was taking the right approach, given the expected size of the field. “It’s very difficult to know who is going to flourish and who is going to wither during this presidential process,” said Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ former campaign manager, who was consulted by the committee. “At the beginning, it’s very important for voters to see all the candidates.”
The move pleased lesser-known candidates, who are happy for the chance to get potential screen time with party’s biggest names.
“I’m glad that the DNC has crafted an open and thorough debate process for our Democratic primaries leading up to the presidential nomination in 2020,” said Julián Castro, the former housing secretary in the Obama administration, who announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee this month.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.