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Party officials, anticipating a rush of candidates eager to grab a spot in the nationally televised forums, created a new set of standards that would accommodate a maximum of 20 candidates. To qualify, a candidate must either reach 1 percent in three approved polls or raise at least $65,000 from 200 donors in 20 states. Each candidate’s slot will be selected by a random drawing.
The criteria will apply only to the first two debates, scheduled for back-to-back weeknights in June and July, allowing the committee to update its requirements as the field shifts. NBC News, MSNBC and Telemundo are sponsoring the first debate, and CNN will host the second, with specific dates and locations to be announced in the coming weeks.
In total, the committee expects to hold a dozen debates over the 2020 campaign cycle.
“Because campaigns are won on the strength of their grassroots, we also updated the threshold, giving all types of candidates the opportunity to reach the debate stage and giving small-dollar donors a bigger voice in the primary than ever before,” Tom Perez, the committee chairman, said in a statement.
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Small-dollar donations have emerged as a significant metric for assessing candidates’ early strength, as some have disavowed super PACs that allow for unlimited sums from wealthy backers. The new debate standard, the first to include small-dollar donations, is likely to intensify the pressure for candidates, particularly those with less name recognition, to quickly lock down donors.
The new criteria are a direct response to criticism leveled during the 2016 campaign that the party committee organized the debate schedule to favor Hillary Clinton, the eventual party nominee. Her two primary opponents, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Maryland governor 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.
The revised debate plan is one of several reforms undertaken by the DNC to rebuild trust within the party after the 2016 elections. Last year, committee members voted to drastically curtail the power of superdelegates — the elected officials, lobbyists and party activists who get to vote for a candidate during the party’s nominating convention. The new rule bars superdelegates from voting on the first presidential nominating ballot at a contested national convention.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.