AUSTIN, Texas _ Democratic presidential hopeful Julian Castro has moved one step closer to securing a spot on stage at the fall Democratic debates.
Fresh off a better-than-expected performance in the first of two Democratic debates last month, the former mayor of San Antonio announced Monday that he had received 130,000 unique donations as of Monday morning, one of the key hurdles he has to cross to participate in the September and October Democratic debates.
To cement his position on stage in September and October, Castro now must also hit 2% in four national or early state polls conducted between June 28 and Aug. 28, per the debate requirements established by the Democratic National Committee. He registered 4% in one recent poll but has otherwise been polling in the low single digits.
Castro has already satisfied the requirement of receiving 400 unique donations from at least 20 states, according to his campaign.
The new requirements are significantly more stringent than the requirements for the June and July debates, which called for at least 1% in three polls or 65,000 unique donors, with at least 200 unique donations spread across at least 20 different states.
So far only five candidates are confirmed to have met the stepped-up requirements for the fall debates: former Vice President Joe Biden; U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind.
Beto O'Rourke has surpassed the donor threshold but has not yet met the 2% polling requirement. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang has also met the donor requirement but, like many fellow candidates, has been polling consistently in the low single digits.
As for the next debate _ held at the end of July and hosted by CNN _ 21 candidates have met one of the two relatively loose Democratic National Committee requirements, but only 20 will be allowed on stage.
Castro and O'Rourke will likely use the July debates to boost their poll numbers.
