Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang pushed back against the Democratic National Committee after they rejected one of his polls to qualify for the September debate.
The DNC sent an email to Yang on Tuesday informing him that he failed to submit four polls that showed him receiving at least 2 percent. The email said a July 11 poll from NBC and the Wall Street Journal and a July 19 poll by NBC and SurveyMonkey that the Yang campaign had submitted could only be counted as one poll since NBC conducted both, according to the Hill.
Mary Beth Cahill, a senior adviser at the DNC, sent an email to Yang saying "Candidates may only count one NBC-sponsored national poll released during the current qualification period." To qualify for the debate, Yang needed to have 2 percent support in four polls and 130,000 donors. He was able to reach the threshold for the latter qualification.
Shortly after the Yang campaign learned they didn't qualify for the debate, campaign manager Zach Graumann sent out an email to supporters, saying, "The political establishment is stacking the deck against us."
"We have a plan - increase name recognition and polling numbers by getting Andrew's message in front of as many voters as possible. That means a whole new game: TV ads," the email read. "That's right! We need you to help us take our message to television. Our Humanity First campaign needs you to fight back harder than you ever have before. Give $20, give $50, or give $100. Give what you can to make sure that we can hit our 7-day, $300,000 goal and flood the airwaves in early states with Andrew’s message."
The email said the campaign knew that the Democratic primary wasn't always going to be "fair" and said they know how the "game is played."
"Through being left off of a media outlet's graphic, through a muted microphone, through a revoked poll - you have been with us every step of the way," the email continued. "You've proven that our Yang Gang is unstoppable and that there is nothing we can't accomplish. Let's keep proving the experts wrong."
Only seven of the Democratic presidential candidates have qualified for the September debate, the Hill reported.