(FOX) - It’s gut-check time in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Three White House hopefuls have called it quits over the past two weeks and the winnowing of the 2020 field could continue later this week, as it’s all but certain that around half of the remaining contenders will fail to make the stage for next month’s third round of nationally televised primary debates.
The deadline to reach the qualifying thresholds laid out by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is Wednesday.
“The debates force candidates to decide whether they’re viable to continue or not,” veteran Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson said. “The debates put that decision front and center for the candidates and force them to reckon with whether they have a path to victory.”
In the past two weeks,former Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado,Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, andRep. Seth Moulton of Massachusettsall dropped out of the White House race. All three immediately moved on to down-ballot races. Hickenlooper launched a bid for the Democratic Senate nomination in Colorado, while Inslee and Moulton announced re-election bids for their respective offices.
While there’s a strong chance other long-shots may also bow out later this week, others may give their candidacies another month. The criteria to make the cut for October’s fourth round of debates is the same as the third, giving the lower-tier candidates another month to reach the debate stage.
“I’d like to see candidates stay in – at least until the fourth debate – because there’s a good chance some of them will qualify for October and I hope some of them will do that so people have a chance to see them,” said Kathy Sullivan, a DNC member from New Hampshire. “There are some really great candidates who either got in late or haven’t got the coverage that some of the others have who I’d like to see them have the chance to introduce themselves.”
But Sullivan, a former state Democratic Party chair, acknowledged that “at some point, obviously closer to the end of the year, people have to do a gut check on money and whether or not they have the ability to move on.”
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