Castro has argued that the debate standards and the structure of the primaries — in which two of the country’s whitest states vote first — were leading to a less diverse Democratic contest. The DNC steadily raised the bar after July’s debates in Detroit, requiring candidates to hit both a higher polling standard and higher donation number. If the DNC relaxed its rules, and allowed candidates to qualify for debates through either polling or donations, it would also clear a path for former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg. “Nobody gives you money if they don’t expect something, and I don’t want to be bought.”ADADFour other Democratic candidates have not qualified for recent debates: Sen. Michael F. Bennet (Colo.), former congressman John Delaney (Md. All seven of the candidates who qualified have threatened to boycott unless a labor dispute is resolved at its host, Loyola Marymount University.

Source: Washington Post December 14, 2019 22:58 UTC