Gary Johnson is gaining ground nationally in his bid to reach the 15 percent that would guarantee him a place alongside Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the presidential debates, according to the results of a new IBD/TIPP poll. The Libertarian candidate’s surge in poll numbers appears to be coming on the backs of the support he has been able to muster among the young voters in America, with the poll suggesting that one in three millennials would prefer voting for Johnson over both major-party candidates.

This poll result comes at an especially crucial time for Johnson with the date for the first presidential debate to be held in New York — September 26 — looming ever closer. According to a report in the Huffington Post, the presidential debate gives the only opportunity available to third-party candidates to increase their reach by almost 50-fold by helping them reach upwards of 50 million Americans at once. Johnson has previously conceded that the future of his campaign depends on whether or not he can make the presidential debate stage, having said that it would be “game over” against Clinton and Trump if he fails to make it.

According to the IBD poll, however, there are reasons for Gary Johnson to feel more confident. He now has 12 percent of national vote, gaining from the roughly 10 percent most polls showed him at the beginning of the last month. In the same poll, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are tied with 39 percent vote, with Green Party candidate Jill Stein trailing all other candidates with just 3 percent of the vote.

Moreover, young voters seem to be increasingly turning towards Gary Johnson. With the major-party candidates both faring terribly poorly when it comes to support among millennials — especially Donald Trump, who, as the Inquisitr reported recently, was third behind both Clinton and Johnson with just 9 percent of the young vote in a recent poll — it is little wonder that the Libertarian candidate has emerged as the most rational choice for young voters among all the presidential nominees. His views on immigration and foreign policy, coupled with his fiscally conservative and socially liberal outlook, seem to have held him in good stead among voters who consider restricting America’s military role overseas as a major draw, especially when both Clinton and Trump are considered as pro-war candidates.

(Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)

During the nominating season, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders commanded a huge support among millennials. But with him out of the picture now, millennials have little choice but to rally behind a candidate with proven credentials and a general unwillingness to steer America into further military interventions in the Middle East and parts of North Africa. While Green Party’s Jill Stein seemed to have appealed to a chunk of those young voters immediately after the Democratic nomination of Hillary Clinton, now with the first debate only three weeks away, Gary Johnson perhaps presents the only realistic option of giving a tough match to both Clinton and Trump in the presidential race.

Among voters aged 18 to 24, Johnson commands a handsome 33 percent of the vote in the new poll, just 4 percent shy of Hillary Clinton. This is a steep rise from Johnson’s performance a month ago, when he was performing at nearly 23 percent among millennial voters.

Moreover, Johnson also commands 22 percent of the independent vote, just 5 percent shy of Hillary Clinton.

Big crowd for @GovGaryJohnson in DSM. Wasn't sure what to expect on the way here, to be honest. pic.twitter.com/tPDbfn4AoH — Kevin Barry (@KevinBarryCBS2) September 3, 2016

If Gary Johnson’s poll numbers continue to rise in similar fashion over the course of the next three weeks, it is very likely that Americans would see him on the debate stage next to Clinton and Trump on September 26. In fact, as The Hill reports, that is something a majority of Americans also want, with a recent Morning Consult poll showing that 52 percent of Americans want to see Johnson participate in the debate, while another poll carried out by Quinnipiac University showed that 62 percent of likely voters nationally wanted to see Johnson included in the debates.

Would you like Gary Johnson on the debate stage alongside Clinton and Trump?

[Photo by George Frey/Getty Images]