Tulsi Gabbard Qualifies for October Democratic Debate By Alexandra DeSanctis
A Monmouth University poll released today has made Hawaii representative Tulsi Gabbard the twelfth Democrat to qualify for next month’s presidential primary debate, to be hosted in Ohio by CNN and the New York Times.
The Monmouth poll put Gabbard at 2 percent in New Hampshire, one of the states to hold an early Democratic presidential primary next year. In order to qualify for the next debate, candidates must have achieved at least 2 percent support in four qualifying polls, as well as have collected donations from 130,000 people, by no later than October 1.
Gabbard failed to qualify for last month’s debate, although she met the donor threshold, because she did not achieve 2 percent in enough qualifying polls. Her campaign has taken issue with the Democratic National Committee standards, particularly because she obtained 2 percent support in a number of polls that did not count toward debate qualification.
So far, the ten candidates who participated in the debate earlier this month have all qualified for October’s, along with billionaire investor Tom Steyer. It has not yet been announced whether the debate will follow the format of those in June and July, with candidates split up between two nights of debate, or whether all the candidates will share the stage for one evening of debate as they did earlier this month.
Though Gabbard lags far behind the primary’s frontrunners, qualifying for the next debate might breathe new life into her campaign. Late last month, New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand ended her presidential campaign after failing to qualify for the September debate, saying without time on stage, she didn’t have enough of an opportunity to make her case to voters.
Gabbard was widely considered to have had a successful night during the last Democratic debate she participated in, which took place in late July.
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