The Winnowing Starts in Three Months

First Read: “The Democrats’ presidential field is guaranteed to become smaller three months from now — at least when it comes to who qualifies to make the debate stage.”

“To qualify for the third round of debates, candidates must hit 2 percent in four qualifying polls released between June 28 and Aug. 28. That’s up from the current polling threshold of 1 percent. And they will need to raise money from 130,000 unique individual donors — up from 65,000.”

“To understand how that new polling requirement will winnow the field, only nine Democratic candidates have hit 2 percent or above in just one of the last three qualifying national polls (Fox, Quinnipiac, Monmouth). Those nine: Biden, Sanders, Warren, Harris, Buttigieg, O’Rourke, Klobuchar, Booker and Castro.”

“That’s it. And it’s quite likely the 130,000 donor threshold reduces that number even further.”