Entrepreneur clears hurdles to qualify for next debate

The entrepreneur and former tech executive Andrew Yang became the ninth Democratic presidential candidate to qualify for the next debates after a new poll of Iowa voters released Thursday showed him earning 2% support.

Yang had already met the Democratic National Committee’s other debatequalification 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 benchmarks.

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, Ind., 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.

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 debatequalifying 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.

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 wellreceived debate performance for Gillibrand.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii has also crossed the 130,000donor mark, but she has only one qualifying poll so far. Matt Stevens is a New York Times writer.