As 2019 comes to an end, the field of Democratic candidates continues to narrow even after the late entries of Mike Bloomberg, Tom Steyer and Deval Patrick. Kamala Harris’ December departure from the field may have been inevitable, but its timing surprised many observers. It takes money to run a campaign and it takes positive polling as well as donors to qualify for the debate stage. Only seven candidates qualified for the Dec. 19 debate in Los Angeles (Harris also qualified before she dropped out). Further attrition in early 2019 seems likely. How the expected impeachment proceedings in the Senate will affect the Democratic campaign is far from certain, though all right-thinking analysts predict that the material for political cartoonists will continue to expand.
