Andrew Yang Becomes 9th Democrat to Qualify for the Next Debate

Yang had already met the Democratic National Committee’s other debate-qualification threshold by having drawn donations from more than 130,000 people. The new poll of likely Democratic caucusgoers in Iowa, conducted by Monmouth University, was the fourth qualifying poll to show him with 2% support.

Candidates are required to both have 130,000 unique donors and register at least 2% support in four polls in order to make the cut for the next debates, scheduled for Sept. 12 and 13 in Houston. They have until Aug. 28 to reach those bench marks.

In qualifying for the third round of debates, Yang joins former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

The former housing secretary Julián Castro has also surpassed 130,000 donors and needs to garner 2% support in just one more poll to qualify.

The Monmouth poll released Thursday had Biden in the lead with 28% of likely Iowa caucusgoers selecting him as their first choice for the nomination. Warren finished next with 19% support, followed by Harris with 11% and Sanders with 9%.

The former hedge fund investor turned impeachment activist Tom Steyer, who entered the race a month ago and plans to spend millions of dollars of his own money to help fund his campaign, earned 3% in the Monmouth poll. It was his strongest finish in a debate-qualifying poll, and puts him just one poll result shy of meeting the DNC’s threshold. Though reaching 130,000 donors will be difficult in such a short amount of time, Steyer’s ability to spend large sums on advertisements could help him amass new donors relatively quickly.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York also enjoyed her best finish in a qualifying poll so far, earning 2% support in one for the first time since she officially kicked off her campaign in March. The poll result comes on the heels of a generally well-received debate performance for Gillibrand, which included a particularly memorable line: “The first thing that I’m going to do when I’m president is I’m going to Clorox the Oval Office.”

Gillibrand’s campaign recently announced that it had crossed the 100,000-donor mark, which puts her in striking distance of meeting one qualification bench mark. But in order to get on the stage in Houston, she will also need to earn 2% support in at least three more polls before the end of the month.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii has also crossed the 130,000-donor mark, but she has only one qualifying poll so far.

Yang’s debate performance last week appeared to give his campaign a fundraising boost. A campaign spokesman said that in the four days after Yang’s debate night, he raised more than $1 million from about 38,000 people, the vast majority of them new donors. By comparison, the Yang campaign raised $2.8 million over the three months ending June 30.

“The country heard my message and is ready to talk about real solutions to gun violence, the new realities of the American economy, and how we measure our health and success as a nation,” Yang said in a statement on Thursday. “I’m excited to have those conversations in Houston and throughout the 2020 election.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.