On Wednesday, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand became the fifth Democratic candidate to drop out of 2020 presidential race. There are still five months before the first votes will be counted in the Democratic Party primaries.
The timing is not a surprise. Gillibrand would have been among a group of candidates who will not qualify for next month's Democratic Party debate.
On Thursday, the field for the next Democratic debate will be announced. Here is who has qualified:
Joe Biden
Cory Booker
Pete Buttigieg
Julian Castro
Kamala Harris
Amy Klobuchar
Beto O'Rourke
Bernie Sanders
Elizabeth Warren
Andrew Yang
These candidates have garnered 130,000 individual donors and at least 2 percent in several qualifying polls.
By qualifying for the September debate held in Houston, the same 10 candidates have also qualified for October's debate.
As of Wednesday night, there are 10 candidates who will not participate in next month's debate. They are:
Michael Bennet
Steve Bullock
Bill DeBlasio
John Delaney
Tulsi Gabbard
Wayne Messam
Tim Ryan
Joseph Sestak
Tom Steyer
Marianne Williamson
Of the five candidates who have dropped out, four have appeared at least once in one of the first two debates. Those candidates are:
Kirsten Gillibrand
John Hickenlooper
Jay Inslee
Seth Moulton
Eric Swalwell
On the Republican side, President Donald Trump will be the overwhelming frontrunner. The only other major candidates to challenge Trump are former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld and former Rep. Joe Walsh. Weld ran for vice president in 2016 on the Libertarian Party ticket. Both are considered long-shot candidates, and it appears the GOP will not hold any primary debates.
But that could change if former Ohio Gov. John Kasich or former Rep. Mark Sanford enter the race. Both have expressed some interest, however Kasich said this week he does not see a path at this time to winning the nomination.
