Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang was flying high Tuesday because he had just cleared one of the two hurdles to secure a spot on the Democratic National Committee’s debate stage this summer.

“As of yesterday, we’ve gotten 65,000 individual donors to my campaign,” Yang told supporters. “That’s what we needed to get into the Democratic debates. And those donations average about $16. My supporters are even cheaper than Bernie’s, but that’s OK because I have a lot of them.”

In February, the DNC set a two-tier requirement for candidates to be considered for the two debates scheduled in June and July. The first challenge is for a candidate to receive at least 65,000 individual donors spread around the country. The second challenge is to receive at least 1 percent in three separate polls up to two weeks before the first debate.

Now Yang has his eye on his place in the polls.

He tied, among many others, for last place in Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll released last weekend with zero percent first choice preferences among likely 2020 Democratic caucusgoers. In the Iowa Poll, 27 percent said Joe Biden, who is not yet in the race, was their first choice and 25 percent said Bernie Sanders, who visited Iowa recently, was their first choice.

The Iowa Poll of 401 likely Democratic caucusgoers was conducted March 3 through 6 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

Yang is quick to point out he received 1 percent in the March 11 Monmouth University Polling Institute national poll. That poll surveyed 310 registered Democrats and leaning Democratic voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.6 percentage points.

Yang’s strategy to rise in the polls includes beefing up his Iowa infrastructure. For the past six months he’s had only one full-time organizer in Iowa based in Iowa City.

“We raised approximately $750,000 in the last month,” Yang told the Des Moines Register. “We are going to actively hire in Iowa and start building an infrastructure."

Tuesday morning he spoke to Iowa Senate Minority Leader Janet Peterson, Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand, State Sen. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville; and J.D. Scholten, the Democratic candidate who nearly toppled U.S. Rep. Steve King in a highly Republican district last year, to ask for recommendations for his staff.

“I’m friendly with all of those people, so it’s not like I called them out of the blue,” Yang said. “They all said they’d send people our way.”

However, with the challenges facing Yang in a crowded presidential field chasing senators, representatives and even former vice presidents with better name recognition, the reality of being elected is a long shot. He doesn’t shy away from admitting that he has a Plan B if he doesn’t take over the White House.

“I’m running for president to try to solve the biggest problems of the 21st century. If someone else takes my policies and makes them a reality, I will be there, hopefully, helping,” Yang said. “If someone else were to make everything I’m fighting for happen and just wipe me out of the history books, I’d be thrilled. I’d spend more time with my family and happy knowing that our country is going to be OK.”

Yang started this week's visit, his ninth to Iowa, on Sunday in Iowa City where he'll finish on Wednesday. He'll return the week of April 15 with his wife and children to spend spring break campaigning in Iowa.