De Blasio Fails To Qualify For 3rd Round Of Presidential Debates

NEW YORK — There's no debating it. Mayor Bill de Blasio has failed to qualify for the next round of Democratic presidential debates in September, the Democratic National Committee confirmed Thursday.

The mayor is not among the 10 candidates who met the DNC's more stringent criteria to take the stage Sept. 12 in Houston. White House hopefuls had to receive donations from at least 130,000 people and register support from 2 percent of voters in at least four qualifying polls.

De Blasio did not hit 2 percent in any polls counted by the DNC, and he said last week that he was "not halfway" to meeting the donor requirement.

A de Blasio campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the mayor's failure to make the cut. But the mayor has vowed to press on with his campaign, noting that the criteria will remain the same for the next debate in October.

"A single moment can change everything, and I believe that as the message gets out more and more people are gonna buy into it," de Blasio said at a news conference last Thursday.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the other New York official in the Democratic race, dropped out of the crowded field Wednesday after it became clear she would not make the debate stage.

Being shut out of the debate could make it even harder for de Blasio to raise money. The majority of the roughly $1.1 million he raised in his campaign's first six weeks came in the days following his first debate appearance on June 26, his campaign has said.

Twenty candidates made the first two rounds of debates in June and July, which were each spread over two nights. But the smaller group this time around means there will only be one night of battling broadcast on ABC and Univision.

The candidates who hit the mark include:

• Former Vice President Joe Biden
• New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker
• South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg
• Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro
• California Sen. Kamala Harris
• Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar
• Former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke
• Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
• Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
• The entrepreneur Andrew Yang