Sanders the sole Jewish US presidential candidate to make next Democratic debate

Fellow candidates Marianne Williamson and Michael Bennet fail to reach required 2% polling or secure 130,000 unique donors

By JTA 29 August 2019, 9:45 pm
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during an American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Public Service Forum in Las Vegas, August 3, 2019. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

Wednesday night marked the deadline to qualify for the next US Democratic presidential debate, and several hopefuls didn’t make the cut. The only remaining Jewish candidate is Senator Bernie Sanders.

Author Marianne Williamson, who has cited Torah on the campaign trail and become a hit on social media, failed to hit either of the requirements — polling at the minimum 2 percent of the vote and securing 130,000 unique donors.

Senator Michael Bennet, who was born to a Holocaust survivor mother but does not identify as Jewish, also failed to qualify.

Senator Cory Booker, who frequently shows off his Hebrew, passed the threshold. The biggest name to drop out of the race before next month’s debate in Houston was Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

From left, Marianne Williamson, Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota., South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, former Texas representative Beto O’Rourke, former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper, former Maryland representative John Delaney and Montana Governor Steve Bullock take the stage for the first of two Democratic presidential primary debates hosted by CNN July 30, 2019, in the Fox Theatre in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Along with Sanders and Booker, here are the other qualifiers: Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Elizabeth Warren and Andrew Yang.

read more: