The next Democratic debate is scheduled for Sept. 12 in Houston and the criteria to participate is much tougher for candidates.
To make the cut, candidates must have 130,000 unique donors and score at least 2% of the vote on four Democratic-approved polls.
While former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-El Paso) has struggled to gain momentum in his national campaign, he has already qualified for the next debate. He has met both benchmarks, so you will see him on stage in September.
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro isn't there quite yet. While his campaign announced he had met the donor threshold, his poll numbers are not high enough to make it right now.
Castro saw a bump in fundraising after his first debate performance.
According to the New York Times, only seven of the 20 candidates who participated in this week's debates in Detroit have qualified for the September debates at Texas Southern University. They are O'Rourke, Vice President Joe Biden, senators Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Corey Booker, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
