With 23 Democratic candidates to choose from in the 2020 presidential election, who should we cover the most?

As we prepare for the primaries in our New York office, we have to consider a number of factors – and sometimes take the polls with a pinch of salt

We’ve had a running list of Democratic presidential candidates on the office whiteboard in New York for a couple of months. But last week, as the field swelled to 23, we had to wipe the slate clean and redo it all in smaller handwriting. The 2020 race is a very crowded field.

It’s a situation that provides a challenge: how do you allocate coverage fairly when the first vote won’t be cast for more than eight months, and household names such as Joe Biden are in the same contest as obscure representatives who could walk through their home district without turning heads?

Two factors typically come into play: a candidate’s polling numbers, and the ways in which they distinguish themselves.