Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

Two Campaign Latecomers Are a Warning to Democrats

At this stage of a healthy winnowing process, candidates should be dropping out, not jumping in.

November 26, 2019 at 11:30 PM UTC

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

Where’s the winnowing?
Photographer: Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post via Getty Images

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Is the Democratic presidential nomination process in trouble? Probably not — but there are some warning signs that the party might want to be aware of.

Every time a candidate drops out of the presidential nomination contest I tweet, #WinnowingWorks. That’s because the process works by attrition: Candidates drop out when they no longer have a realistic chance to win.