The number of candidates on the stage is going to look a little bit more normal at next week’s Democrat debate. So far, only five candidates have met the required thresholds for the CNN/Des Moines Register event.

Zach Montellaro reports at Politico:

More Dems face debate chopping block The Democratic presidential debate stage is set to shrink again next week. Only five candidates so far have earned spots in the Jan. 14 CNN/Des Moines Register debate in Iowa: Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Tom Steyer, Andrew Yang and Cory Booker will all watch from the sidelines unless they see polling surges before Friday’s deadline to qualify. Faced with this potential winnowing of the field, the Democratic National Committee has come under new criticism — especially from the candidates on the chopping block. They pointed to a smaller number of polls over the eight-week qualifying period — which included lengthy breaks over both the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays — and a weeks-long early state polling drought, urging the DNC to make the polling thresholds more lenient. But the DNC is refusing to budge, calling its criteria “inclusive” and fair. This week could bring a surge of 11th-hour polls, though Steyer, Yang and Booker still face major headwinds to getting back on the debate stage at a crucial moment.

You might think that Democrat primary voters would be happy to see a smaller group of candidates so that the discussion can be more substantive.

For the woke left however, there is a deeply troubling aspect taking shape here.

Quinn Scanlan reports at ABC News:

First Democratic debate of 2020 could feature only white candidates: Critics With just days left to qualify for the first Democratic debate of 2020, the stage is is so far shaping up to include only white candidates and unlike the last debate, the chances of at least one candidate of color qualifying before the deadline seem slim. The deadline to qualify for the Jan. 14 debate, set to be hosted by CNN and The Des Moines Register at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, is Friday at 11:59 p.m. So far, only five of the 14 candidates still running have qualified, and all of them are white: former Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren… Quentin Jones, the founder and executive director of The Collective PAC, a political action committee that works to elect African American politicians, told ABC News that the lack of diversity anticipated for the next debate is “unfortunate.” However, he was optimistic about a diverse Democratic ticket come November. “There is no way in hell the Democratic party can win in 2020 without having a person of color on the ticket,” Jones said.

Anyone want to bet that at least one participating candidate brings up this issue and laments the lack of diversity represented on stage? My money is on Buttigieg.



