A dozen Democratic hopefuls took the debate stage Tuesday night in this election cycle’s largest field yet — but don’t get used to it.

A third of the candidates are currently on the outside looking in for next month’s fifth-round debate in Georgia thanks to strict polling and fundraising thresholds implemented by the Democratic National Committee.

Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard made what may have been their last nationally televised appeals to American voters on Tuesday night.

“I think for some of them, not making it to the next debate should be a good indicator that their campaign doesn’t have a leg to continue on,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

“We’ll see whether they take that hint.”

The four have each already garnered the 165,000 unique donors to make the cut for the Georgia debate but are yet to meet the polling requirement.

Candidates have until a week before the Nov. 20 debate to crack either 3% in four approved national or early-state polls, or 5% in two early-state polls.

The “early states” — with the earliest primaries that are viewed as bellwethers for the larger nominating process — are Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Murray said that he was initially skeptical of the DNC’s use of polling criteria to help whittle down the overstuffed field of aspirants but that by this point in the election cycle it makes sense.

“If you don’t have at least one early state where you have at least a foothold, then your campaign probably isn’t going to have room to grow — even if one of the front-runners stumbles, because there are a number of people ahead of you,” he said.

Of the four, Murray felt that Klobuchar has the best shot at making a late push before mid-November, but that Castro, O’Rourke and Gabbard likely “don’t have room to grow.”

To fall short of the next debate would particularly sting Gabbard, who failed to qualify for the third round in September only to rally and climb back onto the roster in October.

Gabbard said in a statement last week that she was considering sitting out Tuesday night’s contest to protest the restrictions.

“In short, the DNC and corporate media are trying to hijack the entire selection process,” she wrote.

“They are attempting to replace the roles of voters in the early states, using polling and other arbitrary methods which are not transparent or democratic, and holding so-called debates which are not debates at all but rather commercialized reality television meant to entertain, not inform or enlighten.”