Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your guide to the day in national politics. I’m Lisa Lerer, your host.
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It was the week the bloated Democratic primary field finally went on a crash diet.
A tougher qualification process blocked half the candidates who participated in last month’s Democratic primary debate from joining the next round in September. That leaves us entering the fall with a sprawling, two-tiered race: the 10 who made the stage and, well, everyone else.
Already, there are signs that the nonqualifiers may soon find their presence in the race increasingly difficult to justify. A number of them felt compelled to release statements this morning explaining their decision to keep going.
“Our campaign is focused on the old-school tactics like taking our message directly to the voters and caucusgoers in the communities of the early states,” said a campaign adviser to Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio.
Tom Steyer’s campaign manager blamed the polls. “It is clear from public polling that Tom would have easily met the 2 percent threshold and been on the debate stage if there had been any qualified early state polling in the last few weeks,” she said.
And former Representative John Delaney cast himself as a singular voice amid the crowd. “I remain committed to the campaign for one simple reason: Someone has to be consistently telling the truth,” he said.
Before we go any further, a quick reality check: Making the debate stage did not require meeting a particularly high standard when you consider the job these people hope to eventually win. All it took was 130,000 donors and capturing 2 percent in four qualifying polls.
Going forward, the path isn’t going to get any easier. For months, I’ve listened to Democrats complain that the field is simply too big. Primary voters — the very people these candidates hope to win over — are practically begging for candidates to drop out of the race.
At least four seem to have absorbed that message. Former Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington all dropped out in recent weeks. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York announced she was ending her campaign Wednesday night, after it became clear that she would not win a place on the debate stage.
Of course, it is possible that some of the nine who have been left behind may qualify for the October debate. The standard stays the same, giving them a few extra weeks to rack up donors and rise in the polls.
Mr. Steyer, for one, plans a new round of ads next week — adding to the $12 million he has already spent during his six weeks in the race. (Not that anyone’s counting, of course.)
Most candidates don’t have the benefit of Mr. Steyer’s billions. But the march to a slightly slimmer field that began this week seems sure to continue.
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Who needs a hug?
On Joe Biden’s first trip to New Hampshire as a 2020 presidential candidate, I stood inside a community college lobby in Manchester, chatting with a voter as we prepared to dash to our cars amid a torrential storm after his event.
The voter mentioned offhand that she had hugged Mr. Biden, but that she had been the one to request the hug.
The unusual caveat caught my attention, so I wrote it down before venturing outside.
It’s one I would hear over and over this summer from women — often over the age of 50 — who waited in line to embrace Mr. Biden. Sometimes they noted their hug requests gingerly, aware that other women have criticized his tactile campaigning style that has included unwanted hugs and touches — an approach for which he initially expressed regret but has also laughed off.
Others made no apology, talking almost combatively about their affection for the former vice president and their desire to show it. One woman in Nevada gave me a hug when I asked about her embrace of Mr. Biden.
“If you like somebody, you hug them,” she told me. “It doesn’t take a Ph.D. to figure that out.”
I’ve written about how many voters, especially in Iowa, often say they are inclined toward Mr. Biden at this early stage because they believe he can beat President Trump — not because they are especially enthused about his campaign vision.
But the women waiting in line to hug Joe Biden, many of them ardent Democrats from an older and less progressive generation, are a reminder of the significant good will he continues to enjoy from some voters, despite a summer of gaffes and controversies.
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What to read tonight
• Where does affirmative action leave Asian-Americans? A fascinating deep dive by The New York Times Magazine into the lawsuit against Harvard that’s forcing students and families to pick sides.