Booker campaign says he has crossed fundraising threshold for December debate

Booker hit the threshold after seeing a spike in donations after this week's Democratic debate, where he asked for help to qualify for the next event, his campaign said.

As Wednesday's debate came to a close, Booker made a plea to voters.

"I have not yet qualified for the December stage, I need your help to do that. If you believe in my voice and that I should be up here, please go to CoryBooker.com, please help," he said.

The people delivered: Wednesday was the "best new donor day of the campaign to date," and more than 70% of the donors were first-time donors to the campaign, according to Booker spokesperson Sabrina Singh. The campaign raised more than half a million dollars in the nine hours since Booker's closing statement, Singh said.

Booker still needs to cross the polling threshold in order to get on the debate stage in December.

Last week, a new super PAC said it planned to spend $1 million to help Booker make the cut for the December debate stage. Philip Swibinski, a spokesperson for United We Win, said it would focus on digital ads geared toward attracting small-dollar donors to help Booker meet the DNC's threshold for the next debate.

In order to qualify for the December debate, candidates need to receive donations from at least 200,000 unique donors, with a minimum of 800 donors from at least 20 different states. Like the polling threshold, candidate will have until December 12 to meet the fundraising threshold.

In addition to the fundraising threshold, Democratic candidates need to receive 4% in at least four national or early state polls that meet the Democratic National Committee's criteria or 6% in two early state polls. So far, Booker has not met the polling threshold.

A recent CNN Poll of Polls of the Democratic primary race found Booker polling with 2% national support.

At least six Democrats have qualified to participate in the debate: former Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, California Sen. Kamala Harris, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

PBS NewsHour and Politico will co-host the debate on December 19 in Los Angeles. CNN will air the debate live on multiple platforms, joining local PBS stations to bring the final DNC-sanctioned debate of 2019 to viewers in the US and around the world.