Andrew Yang's Support Doesn't Have Landlines or Answer Pollsters

“I think what was so cool about this was all it took was 'This is the end of the month' and the campaign [saying]: ‘Hey, we’re small dollars [powered] here,'” Nick Ryan, Yang’s campaign chief, told POLITICO. “Just putting that through a lot of organic channels, not having to drum up any sort of event around it, and we have a base that goes above and beyond.”

The Saturday haul was part of a larger push for the Yang campaign to raise $2 million in one week, a goal Yang tweeted that they hit early Sunday morning. It continues the trend of strong fundraising for the first-time candidate. His campaign raised nearly $10 million in the third quarter of the year, and has increasingly staffed up his campaign as money continues to flow in.

Aides said the fundraising will give the campaign resources to stay in the race after voters actually start voting. “We’re starting to show some movement in national polling, and I suspect a lot of the early states are going to reflect that investment as well,” Ryan said. “We’re going to continue to staff up, continue to [build] an operation that’s going to compete in Iowa and New Hampshire.”

The most immediate goal for Yang is making the December primary debate stage. Qualification for the debate, which is hosted by POLITICO and PBS NewsHour, closes on Dec. 12. Candidates need to hit 4 percent in four polls approved by the Democratic National Committee (or 6 percent in two early-state polls) and have donations from 200,000 unique contributors.

Six candidates — Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — have qualified for the debate.

But three more, including Yang, are on the precipice of qualifying, with a week and a half to go. Yang needs to hit 4 percent in one more poll, and his campaign said he has long surpassed the donor threshold (the campaign said it had over 300,000 donors).

Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard crossed the donor threshold over the holiday weekend and also needs one more poll to qualify. Billionaire Tom Steyer has already hit the polling threshold and just needs additional donors, something campaign aides have told POLITICO they’re confident he will hit.

Candidates’ debate status is based off POLITICO’s tracking of public polling and donor information; no candidate’s qualification is official until confirmed by the DNC after the qualification deadline has passed.

Yang’s team, too, believes that he will be there for the sixth debate Dec. 19.

“We’re showing traction both in public and internal polling and we feel very confident we’ll be on stage in Los Angeles,” Ryan said.

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