BREAKING: Washington Governor Jay Inslee tells Rachel #Maddow that he is exiting the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race. pic.twitter.com/u8ZVlTjytM
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) August 22, 2019
What’s Causing Candidates to Drop Out of the 2020 Race?
After the second Democrat primary debate, many pundits predicted drop outs from candidates. The reality is that failing to make it on any debate stage is a significant blow to a candidate’s desire to win their party’s nomination.
Inslee, like other Democrats, knew that he couldn’t meet the required thresholds for the third debate; these thresholds include getting at least 130,000 contributions from individual donors and hitting at least 2% in four national or early voting state polls. While Inslee successfully garnered 130,000 individual donors, he failed to reach 2% in a single poll.
The candidates which fail to make it to the third primary debate stage are most likely to end their campaigns. Right now, Kirsten Gillibrand and Marianne Williamson are also struggling to meet the aforementioned thresholds. Earlier this week, Gillbrand publically expressed interest in serving as a running mate to whichever candidate wins the Democrat nomination.
