Why Aren’t Tulsi Gabbard & Marianne Williamson in Tonight’s Debate?

Tulsi and Marianne

Getty Tulsi Gabbard and Marianne WIlliamson

Tonight is the Democratic debate, but why aren’t Marianne Williamson and Tulsi Gabbard on the stage tonight? Where are they? The answer is simple. Neither Gabbard nor Williamson qualified for the September Democratic debate. However, there’s still a chance they might qualify in October.


Neither Polled High Enough for Tonight’s Debate

The candidates for tonight are former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Cory Booker, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

 Because of more stringent debate requirements, the candidates in tonight’s debate are narrowed down to just 10 rather than the 20 who participated last time in July. The requirements for this debate included receiving 2 percent or more in four qualifying polls between June 28 and August 28, and receiving donations from at least 130,000 unique donors (with a minimum of 400 donors per state in at least 20 states.) The cutoff for qualifying donations was 11:59 p.m. on August 28.

Candidates have until 11:59 p.m. Eastern on October 1 to qualify for the October 15 and 16 debates. The requirements are the same as they were for tonight’s debate.

Tulsi Gabbard is closer to qualifying than Marianne Williamson is, but only be a little bit more. Gabbard and Williamson have both already qualified for the donor threshold. In fact, according to 538, they’re the only candidates who did not qualify for the September debate who have already qualified in donors. (Except, of course, for Tom Steyer who has qualified in both donors and polls and is assured a spot in the October debates.)

Gabbard has qualified in two official qualifying polls, so she needs just two more. Williamson has qualified in one poll, so she still needs three more. Without getting the attention from being in the debates tonight, it might be a little tougher for both of them in the upcoming polls. But it’s not impossible.

Gabbard almost qualified for a third poll.

In an ABC News/Washington Post poll, she had 1 percent support among adult respondents and 2 percent among registered voters. Unfortunately, the DNC only uses a poll’s “top-line” number that appears first in a survey, so Gabbard’s 2 percent didn’t count (although in other polls it might have been enough to qualify her.)

Gabbard also performed at 3 percent in a recent poll that also didn’t count.

And she hit six percent in an Emerson poll.


Both Have Been Surprise Stars in Previous Debates

Both Gabbard and Williamson have been surprise stars of previous debates. Gabbard stood out when she questioned Kamala Harris in a previous debate about her criminal justice reform record. Gabbard’s questioning later went viral with the hashtag #TulsiDestroysKamala.

Then Williamson stood out in the July 30 debate, first talking about dark psychic forces and then talking about reparations.

Her comments sparked a lot of tweets of approval.

She didn’t hold back about Flint either.

Both Gabbard and Williamson picked up a lot of supporters after their performances in the debate. It wasn’t enough to qualify either for the debate tonight, but there’s still time for them to catch up.

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The debates will certainly be less entertaining without them.

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