Five of the candidates who appeared on Thursday’s debate stage have already qualified for the next debate round in January:
- Former Vice President Joe Biden
- South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg
- Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar
- Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
- Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
The Democratic National Committee on Friday announced its new thresholds for the Jan. 14 primary debate in Des Moines, Iowa, a slight increase from the standards for Thursday’s December debate.
Candidates must secure at least 225,000 individual donors, up from 200,000, plus meet a polling threshold of at least 5% support in four DNC-approved state or national primary polls or 7% support in two single-state polls from Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, or Nevada. Candidates must meet the threshold by midnight on Jan. 10 and can count polls publicly released as far back as Nov. 14.
The two other candidates who appeared on Thursday’s debate stage, businessman Tom Steyer and entrepreneur Andrew Yang, have not yet qualified. Yang has announced reaching 350,000 donors, beyond the threshold, but has only one qualifying 5% poll so far. Steyer has not announced surpassing the donor threshold and has two qualifying polls.
Two more candidates have met one half of the qualification metric but are unlikely to meet a second portion.
New Jersey Rep. Cory Booker, who did not meet the polling threshold for the December debate, has surpassed 225,000 donors but has no qualifying polls. He also earned no qualifying polls for the December debate.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has met the polling threshold but is unlikely to reach the donor threshold. A billionaire who is self-funding his campaign, Bloomberg is not accepting or soliciting campaign donations.
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and former Housing Secretary Julian Castro each passed the donor threshold for December, placing them on track to secure the required 225,000 donors for January but neither qualified due to lack of polls.
Four other candidates are far from meeting either qualification metric: Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, and spiritual author Marianne Williamson.
DNC chairman Tom Perez told the New York Times earlier this week that rules for the three February debates, held after the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses, may eliminate polling or donor thresholds in favor of using results from early-state nominating contests.
[Read more: 2020 Democratic rivals downplay Klobuchar rise after much-praised debate performance]
