These 2020 Democrats Are Now Basically Running 'Zombie' Campaigns

WASHINGTON — Call it The Great Purge.

Democrats have until Aug. 28 cutoff to qualify for the next presidential debate, and more than half the field is at risk of being left out. That could be fatal for already-wounded campaigns that could be pushed from the campaign altogether if they don’t find the 130,000 donors and four qualifying polls where they’ve hit at least 2% support in early-voting states.

“The debates ... they're pretty much the only thing that matters,” said GOP strategist Alex Conant, who was a senior adviser on Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) 2016 campaign.

Conant said any politicians who stick around after failing to qualify for the debates “immediately become zombie candidates. Maybe they stay in the race but they won’t get media coverage, money or have any plausible path to the nomination.”

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