Why Are So Many Democrats Dropping out of the 2020 Presidential Race?

It was like this last time, with a huge republican field to start, then as the numbers looked less favorable, people dropped out. It’s not unusual.

Only one is going to be the nominee, so if we start with 20, 19 have to drop out.

My guess is that they ran out of money.

They drop out if they aren’t polling well (and, as @RedDeerGuy1 said, if they can’t get the funds, which in part, depends on how they’re polling). The candidates who couldn’t rise above 1% in the polls are dropping out.

Candidates also need to poll at a certain percentage to be eligible for future debates. Many of them don’t have the number needed. If they can’t debate they won’t be heard.

Did Gregory Whytman already drop out too?

Candidates also needed to demonstrate depth of support by having a certain number of donors, no matter how small the donation. This was to avoid someone raising millions from only three or four supporters. A lot of the ones that dropped out didn’t meet that threshold.

80% of them had to have known that they didn’t stand a chance. But hey, it got them some free air-time on national news networks.

They had to jump through some hoops to make it into the debate stage for the next debate, and I’m guessing some of these people didn’t meet the requirements.

Some of them I assume did some polling, as others have mentioned above, and saw the writing on the wall that they can’t win. In fact, 4 years ago that’s what Bloomberg cites for not running as an independent, he did some polling and analysis and winning was seemingly impossible. Too bad he didn’t try.

Some of the dropouts never thought they had a chance, but wanted a stage to get their ideas and message out to try to have some influence, but I assume by this point are being pressured to stop diverting attention and money.

Everyone who has dropped out I’m fine with them dropping out.

It’s nothing new and happens every election cycle. If they don’t qualify, they must drop out.

I’m not going to miss any of the candidates who have dropped out so far, and I hope Joe Biden joins them ASAP but I think I’ll have to wait.
Mild exception: I like what Hickenlooper has to say, from real experience no less. But he doesn’t have the stage presence that a few of them do (Sanders, Warren, Harris…)

@dabbler. Hickenlooper dropped out.

@Aster Indeed, he’s the exception that I will miss some of the things he brought up, the way he brought them up, very genuine in my opinion.
I don’t miss any of the others that I have heard dropped out to this point.

There will be dropouts down to two, or three, and then they will drop out until there is one man or woman left standing.

It gets expensive to campaign in state after state primaries, I’d guess that’s the biggest factor determining who goes to the convention. Who comes out of there will be determined by the DNC regardless of the primary votes – we still have superdelegates, right?

It is what is supposed to happen.