Andrew Yang qualifies for December debate and set to be only non-white candidate on stage

“It’s official! We’re headed to the December Debate! Couldn’t have done it without all the amazing support from the #yanggang,” Yang said in a tweet Tuesday.

DNC debate rules require candidates to secure 200,000 individual donors and 4% support in at least four approved polls by midnight on Thursday to make the Dec. 19 debate stage. Yang joins qualified candidates former Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, businessman Tom Steyer, and Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts for the debate, which will be hosted in Los Angeles by Politico and PBS.

Yang’s last qualifying poll was released three weeks ago, leaving him unsure if he would make the Los Angeles stage up until the final days of the qualification period.

Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaii congresswoman and presidential candidate, faces similar drama as Yang. She is also just one poll short of qualifying for the debate. A pair of polls released Tuesday did not show required support for Gabbard, however. She received 2% support in the Quinnipiac poll and less than 1% in a Monmouth poll.

Gabbard said Monday that she would not attend the December debate even if she does qualify for it.

The debate is likely to omit candidates Cory Booker, a New Jersey senator, and Julian Castro, former housing secretary. While both have passed the 200,000 donor mark, neither has received any qualifying polls for December.

Booker, who is black, and Castro, who is Latino, expressed frustration last week that only white candidates had qualified for the December debate following California Sen. Kamala Harris’s exit from the race.

“I’ve seen the bile, the anger, from my family members, to people in the Congressional Black Caucus, to leaders of color across this country who just don’t understand how we’ve gotten to a point now where there’s more billionaires in the 2020 race than there are black people,” Booker said.

With the addition of Yang, the debate stage is set to showcase six white candidates and one Asian candidate.

Five other candidates have not met the donor threshold or received any qualifying polls: Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, and spiritual author Marianne Williamson.