DNC Announces Qualifications for South Carolina Democratic Presidential Debate

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Saturday announced the qualifications for candidates to take part in the presidential debate on Feb. 25 in Charleston, South Carolina, hosted by CBS News and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, in partnership with Twitter.

Similar to the qualifications for the Feb. 19 Nevada debate, candidates need to reach 10 percent in four polls approved by the DNC or 12 percent in South Carolina-specific polls, or win at least one delegate to the Democratic National Convention from one of the three preceding early states: Iowa, New Hampshire, or Nevada. The polls must be released between Feb. 4, the day after Iowas caucuses, and Feb. 24.

Februarys Nevada debate has similar criteria, with the only difference being a shorter polling window and not counting Nevada polls toward qualification, because the debate takes place after Nevadans would have voted.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have all already qualified for the event, according to Politico.

Those same five candidates are the only ones to have qualified so far for the debate in Nevada on Feb. 19.

The two billionaires in the race, Tom Steyer and former New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, have not met the qualification criteria for either the Nevada or South Carolina debates. The deadline to qualify for Nevada is Feb. 18.

Tom Steyer (L), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (R) listen as former Vice President Joe Biden (C) speaks during the Democratic presidential primary debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 14, 2020. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

However, Bloomberg, 77, who announced his campaign in November 2019 and is yet to appear on a debate stage, needs just one more poll to qualify for next weeks debate in Nevada, and two more polls for the South Carolina debate.

Last month the DNC scrapped a donor threshold for the previous debates, which kept Bloomberg off the debate stage because he does not accept contributions as he is completely self-funding his campaign.

“Now that the grassroots support is actually captured in real voting, the criteria will no longer reRead More – Source
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The Epoch Times

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