Senator Cory Booker will drop out of the race to be the Democratic nominee in the U.S. 2020 presidential election unless he can raise 1.7 million U.S. dollars by the end of September, his campaign has said, as a new poll showed Senator Elizabeth Warren leading the field in the key state of Iowa.
Booker's low numbers
The growth of rival campaigns and the prospect of requiring higher thresholds for participating in future Democratic debates have forced Booker to question whether he has a realistic path to the presidency without raising more money, campaign manager Addisu Demissie told reporters on Saturday.
Booker, a black U.S. senator from New Jersey, whose support in national opinion polls stands in the low single digits, needs to raise 1.7 million U.S. dollars by the time the financial quarter ends on September 30, according to a campaign memo sent to supporters.
The 2020 Democratic U.S. presidential debate in Houston, Texas, September 12, 2019. /VCG Photo
The debates, key to fundraising and profile-building, require a rising threshold of donor numbers and opinion poll support in order for candidates to be allowed to take part. Candidates not on the stage have the odds stacked against them, and several have now dropped out of the race.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ended his 2020 presidential campaign on Friday, leaving 19 other Democrats including Booker to vie for the chance to take on Republican Trump.
Fundraising has so far been dominated by four candidates: former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana.
Warren surges in Iowa
Indications of Warren's momentum in the Democratic race continued on Saturday with a new poll putting her ahead of chief rival Biden in Iowa, which, on February 3, will be the first state to take part in the nominating contest.
Warren and Biden, on 22 percent and 20 percent respectively, were well ahead of other candidates in the CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll of likely Iowa caucus-goers. Sanders' support fell to 11 percent, with Buttigieg on nine percent and Senator Kamala Harris on six percent.
Crowds wait to hear Democratic presidential hopeful Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren deliver a speech in Washington Square Park, New York City, September 16, 2019. /VCG Photo
Seventeen of the 19 Democrats in the race to take on Trump in November 2020 spoke at a steak fry in Iowa on Saturday.
Senator Kamala Harris blasted Trump's trade policies as hurting Iowa's farmers, while Sanders warned the "same old type of politics is not going to work" and Biden said he believed the country could recover from four years of Trump's presidency, but not eight.
"I'm Elizabeth Warren, I know what is broken, I know how to fix it and we're building a grassroots movement," Warren said as chants of "Two cents! Two cents!" broke out during her remarks, in a nod to her proposal to impose a two percent tax on wealth above 50 million U.S. dollars.
More than 12,200 attended the Democratic Party fundraiser, breaking previous records and drawing visitors from Germany, Japan and Sweden, according to event organizers.
(With input from Reuters)