With no more polls expected on Wednesday’s debate qualifying deadline, the September Democratic debate is set to take place with 10 candidates on one night, rather than two. And a pair of nearly-qualified candidates, billionaire Tom Steyer and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, won’t be on the stage.
The Democratic National Committee required candidates to secure 130,000 individual donors plus 2% or more support in at least four approved polls, released by Wednesday, to qualify for the Sept. 12 debate. A second night would have been added for Friday, Sept. 13 had the field of qualifying candidates topped 10.
The Steyer and Gabbard campaigns held out hope that two qualifying polls from USA Today/Suffolk and Quinnipiac released Wednesday morning, on the last day to qualify for the debate, would push them over the polling threshold. Steyer has three qualifying polls and Gabbard has two. But the two polls found neither candidate polling at 2%. Barring any more surprise polls released before midnight, they will not be on the stage.
The 10 candidates set to take the debate stage on Sept. 12 in Houston, hosted by ABC in partnership with Univision, are:
- Former Vice President Joe Biden
- New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker
- South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg
- Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro
- California Sen. Kamala Harris
- Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar
- Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke
- Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
- Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
- Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang
The metric upsets candidates who have not passed the thresholds. In a memo on Friday, Gabbard’s campaign noted that she “exceeded 2% support in 26 national and early state polls, but only two of them are on the DNC’s ‘certified’ list.” Other candidates argue that the donor threshold prioritizes spending money on digital ads to solicit donations rather than on talking to voters in person.
Those who have not qualified still have a chance to appear on the October debate stage, which has the same standards. All 10 candidates from the September debate automatically qualify for October, and Gabbard, Steyer, and other candidates can count their September qualifying polls toward the October debate qualification.
