Though he has yet to hit the necessary polling thresholds, Sen. Cory A. Booker’s presidential campaign on Thursday said the New Jersey senator has secured enough contributions to meet the “unique donor” requirement for the Democratic presidential debate next month.
Mr. Booker’s campaign said that as of 7 a.m. Eastern Time, he has crossed the 200,000 “unique donor” threshold and that he has raised more than $500,000 in the nine hours since his closing statement at Wednesday’s debate.
In addition to the 200,000 unique donors, candidates need to hit at least 4% support in four qualifying national or early state polls, or 6% or more in two early state polls to make the next debate stage.
There is a Dec. 12 deadline to hit those metrics to qualify for the December debate in Los Angeles.
It appears that six candidates have already hit both benchmarks: former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
For the moment, that would leave four candidates who were on stage Wednesday in Atlanta on the outside looking in: Mr. Booker, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, billionaire former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer and tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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