The beginning of the end for Trump is in on the horizon as the first Democratic presidential debate will happen in June 2019.
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New York Magazine reported:
The basic debate schedule itself acknowledges the likely massive field and the potential for a drawn-out scrap for delegates that will ultimately determine the nomination. Perez said the first debate will be held in June, 2019 — earlier than Republicans’ late-summer kickoff in 2015 — and the last one is scheduled for April, 2020 — deep into the primary calendar, once the early-voting states and Super Tuesday have passed, and by which point the field is (usually) much winnowed. Perhaps not this time.
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It’s also clear that the DNC is also trying to avoid the business of deciding who counts as a serious contender: while the field is large, each early debate will be split over two consecutive nights, said Perez, with the candidates divided randomly. That avoids the varsity-junior varsity feel of the GOP proceedings last time around. And instead of just using polling to gauge support, especially so early in the process, the committee said it will also use other measures like grassroots fundraising levels as part of the baseline criteria for making it on stage, in the first place. (They’re still working out the full set of criteria for the first debates; that’ll be officially announced next month.)
Democrats have come up with a smart and fair debate strategy
By not holding the first debate until June 2019, Democrats aren’t going to oversaturate and wear out their supporters with debates. The idea of holding debates on back to back nights and assigning the candidates at random avoids the Republican kiddie table problem in 2016, and also those really long debate nights that started at 5 PM ET and could run for five or six hours.
No early primary states will get debates, which is a sign that Democrats are looking to build a national nominee, and single state longshots are not going to be able to hang around and take up valuable stage space in the early debates in the hope of pulling a shocker in Iowa, New Hampshire, or South Carolina.
It is a good schedule that doesn’t favor any candidate, and it also gives Democrats something to look forward to as in roughly half a year the process of finding a nominee to take on Trump will kick off.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
