Another election cycle, another swing of televised debates. One positive change? The Democratic National Committee (DNC) will now require that each 2020 Democratic presidential debate will include at least one moderator who is a woman, as first reported to Refinery29.
It appears that this is the first time this policy has been enacted.
“The DNC is committed to an inclusive and fair debate process," Mary Beth Cahill, a DNC senior adviser, told Refinery29. "That means that all 12 DNC sanctioned debates will feature a diverse group of moderators and panelists including women and people of color, ensuring that the conversations reflect the concerns of all Americans."
Interesting. Before we dig into what could (and couldn’t) work well about this approach, let’s review the DNC debate setup.
The first major debate will be held on June 26 and 27 (yes, it’s split between two nights) and will be hosted by NBC, with partnerships with Telemundo and MSNBC. In July, we’ll have the second debate, split again over two nights, on July 30 and 31. That one will be hosted by CNN. Lastly, the third debates will be held on September 12, with ABC News and Univision hosting it.
Phew! OK. So how does this impact our enormous number of candidates running for the nomination?
To qualify for the first and second debates, there’s a slightly lower bar than to qualify for the third. 20 candidates can participate in the first two debates. They have to register 1% (or more) support in three polls or receive donations from a minimum of 65,000 individual donors and a minimum of 200 unique donors per state.
For the third debate, candidates will need to do two things. First, they’ll need 2% or more support in four polls, and in addition, also have 130,000 unique donors and a minimum of 400 unique donors in a minimum of 20 states.
Back to the women moderators. Is it important? Yes. Is it enough? Debatable. On the bigger picture, which the DNC decision may be speaking to, women candidates, frankly, don’t get enough media attention. Nor do subjects often described as “women’s issues,” like reproductive rights, family leave, or childcare affordability. The goal is likely that with at least one woman moderator, these subjects will be granted their due time in dialogue.
Though it’s tricky because when we have just one of any identity (one woman, one LGBTQ person, and so on), it places an unfair amount of weight on that person to “live up” or meet every expectation. It can also falsely imply that having one identity means you are qualified to speak on pertinent issues for all who share that identity. For example, will having a white woman moderator guarantee that serious issues like the rate of black women’s mortality in hospitals is brought up? The same question can be asked in terms of ableism, socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, and so on.
If you want to learn more about the women candidates running for the nomination, check out our coverage of Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Kirsten Gillibrand to get you started.