Entrepreneur Andrew Yang qualified for the New Hampshire February debate after missing the cut for the Iowa Democratic debate earlier this month.
Yang became the seventh candidate to qualify for the ABC News debate, joining former Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Tom Steyer, according to Politico.
Candidates were required to hit 5 percent in four national polls or 7 percent in two early state polls and receive at least 225,000 individual contributions to qualify for the upcoming debate. The Democratic National Committee also added new qualifying criteria allowing candidates to qualify if they win at least one pledged delegate in Iowa.
Yang, who long since cleared the donor mark, qualified after a Washington Post/ABC News poll showed him at 7 percent nationally and a CNN poll showed him at 5 percent in New Hampshire.
Polls show Bernie surging:
A slew of new polls released over the weekend that helped Yang qualify for the debate showed Bernie Sanders surging ahead in key states.
A WBUR poll showed Sanders with a 12-point lead over Buttigieg and 15 points ahead of Biden in New Hampshire. A CNN poll showed Sanders leading by 9 and an NBC News poll showed Sanders leading by 5.
A New York Times poll showed Sanders up by 7 over Buttigeg and 8 over Biden in Iowa while an Emerson Poll showed him up by 9 and a CBS News poll found Sanders slightly ahead of Biden.
Biden still leads nationally:
There is no national primary but Biden remains the national frontrunner according to this weekend’s polls.
Biden leads by 3 in the latest Fox News poll, by 12 in the latest ABC News poll, and by 3 in the latest Emerson poll.
According to Fox News, Biden leads Trump by 9 points while Sanders leads Trump by 6 points nationally.
According to ABC News, Biden leads Trump by 4 points while Sanders leads Trump by 2 points.
According to Emerson, Biden is tried with Trump nationally while Sanders leads him by 2 points.
