Though New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, was transparent in letting his supporters know that he was in danger of missing an important donor threshold last week, on Sunday he announced that he crossed the threshold, one of the two important steps in qualifying him for the fifth Democratic presidential debate.
According to CNN , his triumphant news came on the heels of the Democratic National Committee recently announcing a much more strict level of donor thresholds that must be met for any Democratic candidate wishing to appear in what could be a make-or-break debate performance in November.
The new requirements set forth by the DNC state that a candidate must receive donations from 165,000 separate donors. Specifically, candidates must raise funds from 600 donors in a minimum of 20 states. The previous number that candidates had to reach was 130,000.
During an interview on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper, Booker explained that while a recent surge in donations was well-received, he admitted that his presidential campaign still needs all the help it can muster.
“We have nearly 35,000 donors who have been helping us make this goal. We’ve raised $1.5 million plus,” Booker told Tapper.
“We’ve actually already crossed the threshold to make the November debates of 165,000 unique donors. The surge and the momentum is great, but yeah, I still need help.”
While Booker has already secured his place on the stage for the October Democratic debate, he still needs to meet a new level of minimum polling to qualify for November’s debate. As reported by The Inquisitr , he either needs to hit three percent in four of the DNC-approved national polls or by hitting five percent or more in two approved polls from early-voting states such as Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina.
Front-runner and former vice president Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg have all met the polling requirement for the November debate.
As CNN reported, Booker’s campaign has struggled in the fundraising department recently, which is in contrast to a strong start of his campaign in which he raised $5 million in the first three months of 2019. That number dropped to $4.5 million in the second quarter and the deadline for the third quarter numbers happens on September 30 which, given recent trends, could be a much lower number.
Booker has recently made clear that he would drop out of the 2020 race if his campaign doesn’t meet a self-imposed funding goal of $1.7 million. As of this writing, Booker’s campaign currently sits at just over $1.5 million, leaving him about $150,000 short of his October 1 goal.
