When the Democratic presidential candidates take the stage on Dec. 19, one face that has remained constant throughout will be noticeably missing. Sen. Cory Booker announced Thursday that he will not be making an appearance after failing to qualify.
“Today is the deadline for the DNC’s December debate qualifying threshold—and while I may not be on the debate stage next Thursday, thanks to the outpouring of support over the past few weeks, we know there’s a path to victory, and we no longer need the debate stage to get there,” Booker tweeted out defiantly late Thursday morning, still leaving room for a victory.
“The voters deserve to decide who the Democratic nominee should be, and I know that together, we can win this race,” he added.
As WMUR notes, while the New Jersey senator did meet the fundraising and donor thresholds implemented by the DNC, his polling continues to be less than stellar as he failed to meet the necessary 4% in at least four sanctioned nationwide polls or 6% in two sanctioned early state polls.
A December 10 Quinnipiac University poll showed that only 1% of Democrat or Democratic-leaning voters would vote for Booker if the primaries were held at that moment.
Regardless of Booker’s polling struggles, and the fact that he won’t be in the next debate, he insists that there is a path to victory, and that he is still the best candidate to beat Trump, noting that he’s “not sticking around for vanity or ego.”