Article snippet: Former vice president Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris were both in the hot seat Wednesday as they defended their records and proposals in the second night of the second round of 2020 Democratic presidential debates. While this pair will dominate the headlines, the real drama was among the seven on the stage who have not yet qualified for the next round of debates. There are 25 Democrats running for president, but only about 10 are expected to meet the party’s requirements for the next debate in September. By Aug. 28, candidates will need to show they have at least 130,000 donors and reach 2 percent in at least 4 polls the Democratic National Committee has deemed credible. Two candidates on the stage — former Housing secretary Julián Castro and New York entrepreneur Andrew Yang — are on the bubble. Both have met the donor thresholds and are on their way to hitting the poll thresholds but have yet to do so. Yang, for example, needs just one more poll. But for the five others on the stage it was a do or die moment. (Note Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was explicit in her closing statement that she needed donors to make the next debate stage.) And where candidates stand relative to qualifying for the next debate — outside of Biden’s own performance as a frontrunner — is a huge factor for grading most candidates. Just like the Tuesday night, the grades below are based on two criteria: The candidate’s debate performance, including the substance and resonance of their ... Link to the full article to read more