Billionaire activist Tom Steyer on Sunday appeared to be the 11th candidate to qualify for the October Democratic presidential debate, his campaign announced.
Steyer received 2 percent support — the Democratic National Committee's threshold for poll qualification — in a new CBS News/YouGov poll surveying Nevada, giving him the required four polls at 2 percent or higher he needed to qualify. Steyer had reached the needed 130,000 unique donations needed for debate qualification last month.
The polling did not come in time for Steyer to reach the stage in this week's debate, set for Houston.
"It’s now more clear than ever that Tom’s message is resonating with Americans across the country — that it is time to break the corporate stranglehold on Washington and bring democracy back to the American people," Campaign Manager Heather Hargreaves said in an email. "We are thrilled that Tom will be able to share his vision — of how together we can fix our broken political system — with the American public.”
The October debate will take place on Oct. 15 and 16 in Ohio. With 11 candidates having likely qualified, the debate is almost certain to be split over two days.
Ten candidates will participate in this week's debate: Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julián Castro, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Andrew Yang. Those candidates are all locks to be in October's debate unless they were to end their campaign.
Among those on the outside looking in, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, is within striking distance of qualification.
