Cory Booker looks unlikely to make next presidential debate

Prospects are looking bleak for New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker to make the next Democratic presidential debate.

The Democratic National Committee has announced more stringent qualification guidelines for the Jan. 14 debate in Iowa, ahead of that state's Feb. 3 caucuses.

To qualify, candidates must meet the "polling threshold" of 5% or more support in at least four different polls. The surveys may be national polls or single-state polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and/or Nevada.

Each of those four polls must be done by different organizations or in different states.

Booker has not polled at 5% since March, according to The Washington Post.

A candidate also could meet the polling threshold if he or she receives 7% or more support in two single-state polls (also in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and/or Nevada).

Democratic candidates also must meet the "grassroots fundraising threshold," which means receiving donations from at least 225,000 total donors and at least 1,000 donors in at least 20 states.

Booker has met that fundraising threshold for January, according to Newsweek.

Candidates must meet all debate criteria by Jan. 10.

As of last week, only five candidates among a field of 15 were qualified to appear on the stage in Iowa — Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

The same five candidates were featured in the December debate, along with Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang.

As reported by ABC News, newcomer candidate and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg already has met the four-poll threshold, but seems highly unlikely to reach the grassroots fundraising threshold.

He has said he won't take donations. Bloomberg, a self-made billionaire and the eighth richest American according to Forbes Magazine, instead is self-funding his campaign.

The January debate will be hosted in partnership by CNN and the Des Moines Register, held on the campus of Drake University in Des Moines.