A handful of struggling Democratic presidential hopefuls are bracing for bad news as the window to qualify for the party's next debate closes quickly.
In order to appear at the September debates, candidates have to reach 2% in at least four approved public opinion polls while notching 130,000 unique campaign donors by the end of Wednesday.
Billionaire climate change activist Tom Steyer is the closest to securing a slot, needing only one qualifying poll. But two polls released Wednesday did little for him, or any of the other candidates on the bubble. Both a Quinnipiac Poll and USA Today/Suffolk Poll show former Vice President Joe Biden with a commanding lead.
That raises the likelihood the debate will feature 10 candidates, making it the first in this election season to be held on a single night. Earlier debates featured 20 candidates split across two nights.
The event will be held in Houston, and the Executive Director of the Texas Democratic Party, Manny Garcia, said they are working with the Democratic National Committee for the event.
They are helping with staffing on the ground.
"We want to make sure that our state legislators are all in the audience, that folks that are representative of the community of Houston, and of the community of Texas, are in the audience as well. So we have been working with the DNC for weeks, to make sure that advocates from all across the state have an opportunity to get into the debate, to participate in the debate," said Garcia.
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Garcia said the eyes of the world are going to be on the Democratic party in Houston.
"There is really no better place to have it. We are the biggest battleground state in the country," he added.
