With no more polls expected on Wednesday's debate qualifying deadline, the September Democratic debate is set to take place with 10 candidates on one night, rather than two. And a pair of nearly-qualified candidates, billionaire Tom Steyer and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, won't be on the stage.

The Democratic National Committee required candidates to secure 130,000 individual donors plus 2% or more support in at least four approved polls, released by Wednesday, to qualify for the Sept. 12 debate. A second night would have been added for Friday, Sept. 13 had the field of qualifying candidates topped 10.

The Steyer and Gabbard campaigns held out hope that two qualifying polls from USA Today/Suffolk and Quinnipiac released Wednesday morning, on the last day to qualify for the debate, would push them over the polling threshold. Steyer has three qualifying polls and Gabbard has two. But the two polls found neither candidate polling at 2%. Barring any more surprise polls released before midnight, they will not be on the stage.

The 10 candidates set to take the debate stage on Sept. 12 in Houston, hosted by ABC in partnership with Univision, are:



Former Vice President Joe Biden

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker

South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro

California Sen. Kamala Harris

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren

Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang

The metric upsets candidates who have not passed the thresholds. In a memo on Friday, Gabbard’s campaign noted that she "exceeded 2% support in 26 national and early state polls, but only two of them are on the DNC’s ‘certified’ list." Other candidates argue that the donor threshold prioritizes spending money on digital ads to solicit donations rather than on talking to voters in person.

Those who have not qualified still have a chance to appear on the October debate stage, which has the same standards. All 10 candidates from the September debate automatically qualify for October, and Gabbard, Steyer, and other candidates can count their September qualifying polls toward the October debate qualification.