The Democratic primary race is a crowded 23-candidate field now, but it is ultimately a two-tiered race between the haves (five frontrunners) and have nots – everybody else jostling for position to raise money and political cachet – The Wall Street Journal reported.
"I don't believe in September or October you'll have 23 candidates," a Democratic strategist supporting South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Steve Elmendorf told the Journal. "If you've been through two, maybe three debates and nothing has happened and your money has dried up, maybe you make it through Iowa but I'm not sure why."
The first debates featuring 20 of the candidates are this week in Miami, Wednesday and Thursday nights with 10 candidates on the debate stage each night.
"Right now it's a national campaign and the amount of attention you are getting drives how well you are doing in early states," Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign manager Robby Mook told the Journal. "It means the biggest question is who is driving the news. Who is getting attention."
It will prove to be boom or bust for candidates seeking funds to wage a campaign against the five frontrunners: former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Mayor Buttigieg, and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., according to polling.
"If you can't make the fall debates, your campaign is probably toast," former President Barack Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer told the Journal. "So, they need moments to create attention and virality to increase their poll numbers and, more importantly, get the online donor number up."
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