Under newly crafted rules, Andrew Yang (above) and Marianne Williamson are poised to qualify for the first Democratic debate later this year. | Joshua Lott/AFP/Getty Images 2020 elections Dem long shots crash 2020 debate stage Andrew Yang and Marianne Williamson, who have never held public office, could qualify for the first Democratic primary debate.

The Democratic National Committee wanted orderly, open primary debates this time around, free from accusations of bias and the general chaos of 2016.

But voters may be surprised at just how open the debates get.


Under newly crafted rules, two little-known candidates with no governmental experience are poised to qualify for the first debate later this year. The extraordinary shift from past campaigns will squeeze the amount of time on stage for candidates looking to the debates for breakout campaign moments. And it will force the senators and governors — and maybe even a former vice president — running for president to contend with and respond to the outsiders’ ideas on national TV.

Andrew Yang and Marianne Williamson, a pair of little-known 2020 contenders, both say they are on track to meet the grassroots donation threshold set by the DNC to get into the first debate in June. They’d join Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, both African-American ministers and civil rights activists, as the only non-elected officials to make the first Democratic presidential debate in the past 40 years.

To qualify, candidates must get at least 1 percent support in three party-approved public polls — or receive campaign donations from 65,000 individuals with a minimum of 200 donors apiece in 20 states, the DNC said in February . If there are more than 20 candidates who pass one of those thresholds, only candidates who meet both polling and fundraising criteria will be given primacy, with the large debate field randomly split into two groups over two nights.

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Yang, an entrepreneur who supports giving all American adults a $1,000 monthly government stipend, features a cartoon of himself heading toward a podium on his website, tracking his total individual donors — up to more than 46,000 by the middle of this week, according to the site. Williamson, a self-help author calling for citizens to bring a higher level of consciousness to politics, is further behind, with about a third of the donors needed to reach the debate stage, her campaign said.

A two-night, 20-candidate event won’t yield much information for voters, said Patti Solis Doyle, a Democratic strategist who managed Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.

“The DNC is doing their best to accommodate a huge field, but this is going to be very unruly, and candidates will be lucky if they get a minute on a single question with so many people on stage,” Solis Doyle said. “In the beginning, these debates are going to be useless, even fruitless.”

“If the idea for the debate is to actually get to know the candidates, then they’re going to have to find a way to winnow it down,” she added.

Allowing long-shot candidates to debate “has the potential to diminish everyone on stage,” said Craig Varoga, a Democratic strategist, “but on the other hand, it’s a temporary phenomenon that’ll be dealt with by the brutal economics of running for president.”

Debates often serve up viral, campaign-changing moments without regard for a candidate’s current standing in the field. Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s debate performances prompted a big bump in his 2012 presidential prospects, while former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was already fading from the 2016 Republican primaries when he memorably labeled Sen. Marco Rubio, then on the rise, a robot. Rubio finished fifth in the New Hampshire primary days later.

“One thing that’s sure to come out of these debates is a dark horse who can catapult themselves forward into another tier,” said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist. “That’s what a lot of them are hoping for, and the more people on stage, the more difficult that becomes, but it certainly won’t prevent any of them from being able to do it.”

And Yang and Williamson could press the rest of the Democratic field on issues that matter to them, like universal basic income or reparations for African-Americans.

Marianne Williamson (above) and Andrew Yang could press the rest of the Democratic field on issues that matter to them, like universal basic income or reparations for African-Americans. | Amy Harris/Invision/AP

If some of those lines stick, “don’t be surprised if you hear those top-tier candidates suddenly start putting them into their stump speech,” Varoga said.

But having more candidates on stage, the “the tougher it becomes for candidates to break through,” said Doug Thornell, another Democratic strategist. “The format is great for the party, but for the individual candidates, if there are 10 of them on a stage, they’re going to have be really smart with how they use their time.”

With 17 candidates in 2016, Republicans opted for a two-tiered system based on polling numbers, which drew derision for its “kid’s table” debate. Democrats, eager to avoid the appearance of preferential treatment, will divvy up the candidates randomly between the two debate nights. The DNC is also patching up debate logistics after 2016, when some Democrats criticized the committee for restricting the number of debates, as well as scheduling them during inconvenient times, including on the Saturday before Christmas in 2015.

New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley also said it would be “a mistake” to determine top-tier candidates so early in the primary process.

“Donald Trump was clearly a four-tier candidate and he got himself elected, so anyone who’s saying that someone on a second-tier might not be able to, I think that’s wrong,” Buckley said.

Yang said the DNC’s debate criteria had been “very much a call to action to grow our donor base very quickly,” and he expects that to get on the stage in future debates that “it’d be the same just with higher thresholds.”

The DNC declined to provide details on how the thresholds might change after the first two debates. The party confirmed in February that it will authenticate candidates’ grassroots donor numbers by working with ActBlue and NGP VAN, both Democratic fundraising platforms, to verify their donor totals.

“We want to make sure that if you’re out there connecting with the grassroots, you can get on the debate stage,” DNC Chairman Tom Perez told CNN in January, comparing the threshold to “not a layup, but it’s not a full-court shot.”

Yang said he felt the DNC’s requirements were “fair,” though a spokeswoman for Williamson called them “arbitrary prerequisites [that] fail our Democratic process” and said that “voters can handle 20-plus candidates debating.”