Yang surpasses Beto in Iowa poll, qualifies for fall debates [View all]

[Jose Garcia]

Andrew Yang, the entrepreneur running an outsider presidential campaign centered on the promise of a universal basic income, has qualified for the fall Democratic primary debates.

Yang crossed the second of two required debate thresholds on Thursday, when he polled at 2 percent in a Monmouth University poll in Iowa. He had previously received at least 2 percent in three other polls approved by the Democratic National Committee and has hit the required 130,000 unique donor mark.

At the other end of the spectrum, onetime Democratic phenom Beto O'Rourke was outperformed in the poll by Yang, clocking in at under 1 percent.

Yang is the ninth candidate to qualify for a pair of debates: one in mid-September and one sometime in October. He joins Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on stage.

More: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/08/andrew-yang-qualifies-democratic-debates-1453030