Former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, former mayor of San Antonio, Texas, and a Democratic presidential candidate for the 2020 election, Julián Castro told his supporters that if he doesn’t raise enough by the end of the month, he will have to drop out of the presidential race.
Castro said he needs at least $800,000 by October 31st in order to continue his campaign, giving his supporters 10 days to raise enough to keep him in the race.
“I’m asking you to fight for me like never before,” Castro said in the email. “If I don’t meet this deadline, I won’t have the resources to keep my campaign running. I’m counting on your $5 in this critical moment.”
“This isn’t a fundraising gimmick — it’s the transparency and honesty I have promised you since I entered this race,” he said. “The truth is, for our campaign, these debates have offered our only guaranteed opportunity to share my vision with the American people. If I can’t make the next debate stage, we cannot sustain a campaign that can make it to Iowa in February.”
There are currently 18 democrats remaining in the race. So far, Castro has qualified for every democratic debate, but he has yet to qualify for the November debate. Just nine candidates have qualified so far under the debate’s higher qualifications. Candidates must register at least 3% in four national polls, or at least 5% in two early state polls, and have at least 165,000 unique donors with at least 600 coming from 20 different states.
While Castro has met the donor threshold, he has yet to make the polling threshold.
But that may not matter if Castro can’t raise the funds he needs before Thursday. On Monday, Castro said he expects that he will be able to meet this goal.
Castro has used his time on the stage to highlight housing issues. At the October debate, Castro criticized the moderators for closing with a question about comedian Ellen DeGeneres’ controversial friendship with former President George W. Bush without asking any questions about housing and other critical issues.
A week earlier, Castro had challenged the debate moderators via Twitter to ask a housing question.
And a few days before the debate, at the CNN town hall on LGBT equality Castro called on HUD Secretary Ben Carson to resign due to his comments on transgender people.
