The Democratic National Committee announced Monday that it has raised the stakes for candidates to qualify for the upcoming November primary debate, according to Politico.
Polls: Candidates will need to have a 3% in four DNC-approval polls, which is up from 2% needed for the September and October debates. Candidates can also have 5% in two approved polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
Donors: Candidates will need 165,000 unique donors, which is up from the 130,000 needed for September and October. There must be 600 unique donors in 20 different states, territories or the District of Columbia, according to Axios.
Who has qualified?: No one yet. But it looks like Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, will all meet that soon since they were all ranked with 5% in the Des Moines Register/Mediacom/CNN Iowa poll. A Monmouth University poll will be released Tuesday with data from New Hampshire Tuesday.
Who needs to qualify: Sens. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Andrew Yang have hit the 3% mark once already for the three polls for the debates already released. They still need to clear that mark for three more polls.
Meanwhile, Julian Castro, the former housing and urban development secretary, hasn’t hit 3% yet, nor has Tom Steyer, businessman. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, hasn’t hit close those numbers, either.
More details: Some campaigns told Axios that they’re happy about the thresholds since those numbers can be reached rather easily. But top level candidates are worried it’s too low and doesn’t narrow the field enough.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., told The New York Times that the DNC’s rules are a little questionable.
“I think it’s mission impossible for the DNC to please everybody,” he said.