That was fast — on Saturday, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard received her third qualifying poll for October’s Democratic debate; today, she got the last one she needed. Because she has now earned 2 percent support in four national or early-state polls released by an approved pollster since June 28, and has also reportedly met the debate’s minimum fundraising requirements of 130,000 unique donors (including at least 400 individual donors in at least 20 states),1 Gabbard is now the 12th candidate to make the debate stage by our count.
Twelve candidates have qualified for the October debate
Democratic presidential candidates* by whether and how they have qualified for the fourth primary debate, as of Sept. 24
| MET THRESHOLD FOR … | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | No. of Polls | Polls | Donors | Qualified |
| Joe Biden | 19 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pete Buttigieg | 19 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Kamala Harris | 19 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bernie Sanders | 19 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Elizabeth Warren | 19 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cory Booker | 16 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Beto O’Rourke | 13 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Andrew Yang | 11 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Amy Klobuchar | 9 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tom Steyer | 7 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Julián Castro | 6 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tulsi Gabbard | 4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Marianne Williamson | 1 | ✓ | ||
| Michael Bennet | 0 | |||
| Steve Bullock | 0 | |||
| John Delaney | 0 | |||
| Tim Ryan | 0 | |||
| Joe Sestak | 0 | |||
The poll that put her over the top was a Monmouth University poll of New Hampshire, which was also notable for other reasons. The survey showed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (with 27 percent support) and former Vice President Joe Biden (25 percent) leading in the Granite State, followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (12 percent), South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (10 percent) and Sen. Kamala Harris (3 percent). Gabbard got 2 percent, along with four other candidates — but all of them had already made the debate stage.
In addition to Gabbard, the 10 candidates from the September debate plus Tom Steyer have qualified for the October debate, which will take place at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, and will be hosted by CNN and The New York Times. Although the Democratic National Committee has not yet announced whether the debate will be one night or two, it’s difficult to imagine 12 candidates squeezing onto one stage. In all likelihood, then, Gabbard’s qualification means that we will have two nights of debating once again — the first on Tuesday, Oct. 15, and the second on Wednesday, Oct. 16.