(CNN) Tom Steyer's strategy did not appear to pay off.

The billionaire hedge-fund founder plowed millions of dollars into television and social media ads to promote his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, but he failed to register a minimum of 2 percentage points in two polls released Wednesday morning. Without those polls, he is likely to miss the debate stage in Houston next month.

Steyer entered the race late -- on July 9 -- and scrambled to meet the Democratic National Committee's polling and donor benchmarks. Candidates needed to register at least 2% in four DNC-approved polls and receive money from 130,000 individual contributors, including at least 400 donors in each of 20 or more states.

Steyer has already hit the polling threshold in three polls, all of which came in early state polling. In order to qualify for the September debate, he would need to hit the 2% threshold in a fourth poll released by the end of the day on Wednesday.

He announced earlier this month that he had met the donor threshold.

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