--- description: Lessig had pushed hard for a place on the stage at the Democratic debates, but decided to drop out of the primary on Monday title: Lawrence Lessig Would Not Have Qualified for CBS Debate image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b8ed7929ecf2adc/69886fcbcd1bba0c3b6fdf77/lawrence-lessig-debates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Debates](/tag/debates/) ## Debates Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Lawrence Lessig Would Not Have Qualified for CBS Debate by [Sam Frizell](/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 5, 2015 10:28 PM CUT  Democratic presidential candidate Lawrence Lessig speaks on stage at the New Hampshire Democratic Party State Convention on September 19, 2015 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Democratic presidential candidate Lawrence Lessig speaks on stage at the New Hampshire Democratic Party State Convention on September 19, 2015 in Manchester, New Hampshire.Scott Eisen—Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 5, 2015 10:28 PM CUT Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig ran for president mainly to raise awareness for his ideas about campaign finance reform, then dropped out when he couldn’t get much of a hearing. The CBS Democratic debate criteria are in, and they show he wouldn’t have gotten a boost even if he had stayed in. According to the CBS criteria shared Thursday afternoon with TIME ahead of next week’s debate, Lessig would not have been allowed on the debate stage with frontrunner Hillary Clinton, challenger Bernie Sanders and underdog Martin O’Malley. The Nov. 14 debate requires candidates to have polled above 1% in national polls recognized by CBS News over a five week period from Sept. 29 to Nov. 3, CBS said. Many polls had not asked about Lessig, and in a CBS poll taken last month, the minor presidential candidate registered no support. “Now from the start it was clear that getting into the Democratic debates was _the_ essential step in this campaign,” Lessig said in a video on Monday when he announced he was dropping out. “I may be known in tiny corners of the tubes of the internets, but I am not well-known to the American public generally.” Lessig, a political activist, attorney and Harvard Law School professor was the founder of the Mayday PAC, whose purpose is electing candidates to Congress who will pass campaign finance reform. His primary campaign motive was ending the influence of big money in politics. **Read Next:** [_Lawrence Lessig Thinks a Single Issue Might Make Him President_](http://time.com/4008492/lawrence-lessig-president-bernie-sanders/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4102049/democratic-debate-cbs-lawrence-lessig/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4102049/democratic-debate-cbs-lawrence-lessig/"},"headline":"Lawrence Lessig Would Not Have Qualified for CBS Debate","datePublished":"2015-11-05T22:28:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:23:46.256Z","description":"Lessig had pushed hard for a place on the stage at the Democratic debates, but decided to drop out of the primary on Monday","url":"https://time.com/4102049/democratic-debate-cbs-lawrence-lessig/","keywords":["Debates","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b8ed7929ecf2adc/69886fcbcd1bba0c3b6fdf77/lawrence-lessig-debates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b8ed7929ecf2adc/69886fcbcd1bba0c3b6fdf77/lawrence-lessig-debates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"http://time.com/4008492/lawrence-lessig-president-bernie-sanders/","caption":"http://time.com/4008492/lawrence-lessig-president-bernie-sanders/","creditText":"Scott Eisen—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4102049/democratic-debate-cbs-lawrence-lessig/","name":"Lawrence Lessig Would Not Have Qualified for CBS Debate"}}]}] ```