The Electables

The DNC has announced the 20 candidates who have qualified for the first Democratic debate. Adrienne sits down with former colleague and War Room Director, Adrienne Watson, to discuss the announcement. Just 12 days from the first debate, the top 20 candidates can take a short breath but the second debates have even harder qualification requirements. They will be looking to use this stage to catapult their place in the polls.

The research department of a campaign is critical to the success of the candidate. It's critical to perform opposition research as well as research things that your opponents might use against your campaign. The research department touches every campaign team from debate prep to communications.

Tony Carrk is a campaign research rockstar after leading the teams for Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton. He gives us a behind the scenes look at what it takes to put together a research summary on a candidate, how research effects other departments, and he shares a few stories from real campaigns.

This episode was recorded in the heart of the DNC headquarters with DNC Communications Director, Xochitl Hinojosa. The DNC announced new criteria for candidates to be on the third debate stage at a yet to be disclosed location. With the news just breaking, we'll give you a detailed look at the DNC's rationale straight from the source.

Doug and Adrienne provide a progress report on where the candidates stand right now and where this race is heading. With 23 candidates in the running and the first debate a mere month away, many need to start making moves.

Axios's Alexi McCammond joins Adrienne and Doug on this week's episode of the Electables to discuss how the candidates are doing so far in their campaigns. Alexi weighs in about a candidate who she thinks is a major dark horse given how well he or she is liked in small settings. They also discuss some very interesting polling stats that will make you think twice about who you think is leading this very early race.

Perry Bacon, a senior writer for FiveThirtyEight writing about government and politics, joins Adrienne and Doug to discuss the Democratic primary contenders. They discuss who is leading, how Biden is doing so far, and who is underperforming. They also discuss the ever present topic: electability.

Jefrey Pollock is the founding partner and president of Global Strategy Group. Jef walks Adrienne and Doug through the polling process for a large national campaign, debate strategy, and shares some of his best campaign stories.

Neera Tanden is the president of the Center for American Progress, a public policy research and advocacy organization. In this episode, Neera shares how she got her start in politics, her thoughts on the current Democratic candidates as a woman of color, and lays out what she feels the Democrats strategy should be towards the economy.

John Anzalone is one of the preeminent pollsters in the business. He has over twenty-five years of polling experience and has polled for the presidential campaigns of both Barack Obama (2008 & 2012) and Hillary Clinton (2016). He discusses how he got started in politics, Democrats in 'The South', the art of focus groups, and his take on some of the candidates running for the Democratic nomination.

Ron Klain joins Adrienne and Doug to discuss his views on the upcoming Democratic primaries, his support of Joe Biden, as well as shares some stories from his decades of experience in D.C. politics.