Tom Steyer Qualified for October’s Democratic Debate

Damnit!

Thanks to billionaire
Tom Steyer, who could’ve used his money to fund
ThinkProgress instead of running for president, the fourth round of
Democratic presidential debates will be held on two consecutive nights in
October instead of one.

Steyer had failed
to qualify for the third round of debates, to be held on Thursday. That debate—thank
god—will take place on only one night, at Texas Southern University, and will
be hosted by ABC and Univision, our former employer.

To qualify
for both the third and fourth rounds, candidates needed to reach 2% in four
polls and collect donations from 130,000 unique donors.

According to CBS News, Steyer reached 2% in Nevada in the
latest CBS
News Battleground Tracker poll, published on Sunday, in addition to
previously reaching 2% in three other polls. Steyer’s campaign already had announced
it had reached the donor requirement. Again, damnit!

Here’s a list for the third debate. For the fourth, in
October, you can just add Steyer’s name for now. According to CBS, Rep. Tulsi
Gabbard has met the donor threshold, but not the polling threshold.

• Joe Biden
• Cory Booker
• Pete Buttigieg
• Julián Castro
• Kamala Harris
• Amy Klobuchar
• Beto O’Rourke
• Bernie Sanders
• Elizabeth Warren
• Andrew Yang

While I’m still not eager to cover the horse race of
Democratic challengers so early in September 2019, the latest CBS poll is
interesting in that it shows Sen. Elizabeth Warren gaining ground on former
Vice President Joe Biden.

CBS described Biden as now clinging to a narrow lead over
Warren in the network’s estimate of convention delegates.

“Warren has gained delegate share as supporters of other,
lower-tier candidates have been switching their preferences toward her,” CBS
News reported.

Biden reportedly has an estimated 600 delegates of those
available through Super Tuesday,
on March 3, 2020, while Warren has 545.