Andrew Yang’s (D) campaign on Saturday blasted the Democratic National Committee (DNC) after the presidential hopeful failed to meet the polling threshold required to participate in next week’s debate in Des Moines, Iowa.
Yang failed to meet the required polling threshold ahead of the January 10 deadline, which required candidates to garner at least five percent support in at least four DNC-approved polls or seven percent in two early state polls — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. Candidates also needed to report at least 225,000 individual donors with 1,000 in at least 20 states.
Only six candidates — Joe Biden (D), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), former Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), and Tom Steyer — made the debate stage, leaving a lineup composed entirely of white candidates.
While Yang reached the donor requirement, he fell two polls short of qualifying. The Yang campaign blamed the DNC, arguing that it did not conduct enough polls in early states.
“If the DNC had only done their due diligence and commissioned polls in the early states, Andrew Yang would certainly be on the debate stage next week,” Yang campaign chief Nick Ryan said in an email to supporters, according to the Hill.
“We are not going to allow the DNC to dictate who they wish to see as the nominee and deny the will of the people,” he continued, contending that Yang is “on the rise and at 5% in Nevada and New Hampshire.”
“The issues that will decide this election, and the future of our country, are too important to ignore for the sake of staged political bickering. The DNC tried to run this same play in 2016 and they paid for it with a loss in the general,” Ryan added.
The CNN/Des Moines Register debate is slated for Tuesday evening.
A CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll released Friday showed Sanders taking a narrow lead in the Hawkeye State with 20 percent support.
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