Cory Booker makes fundraising deadline to stay in presidential race

Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker said Monday he will stay in the party's 2020 primary race, having met a fundraising deadline after a sustained nine-day effort.

The New Jersey senator said he needed $1.7 million to meet a Democratic Party threshold to participate in the next debates, and has raised nearly $1.8 million.

"It was the real number we knew was necessary for us to continue building an organization that can take us all the way to the White House," Booker tweeted Monday. "We have what we need to grow but let's not stop now."

Booker said he wants the total to reach $2 million by the end Monday, which marks the end of the fiscal third quarter.

"You put us back on a trajectory where we know we can be competitive," he told supporters. "There's a viable path forward, and I'm staying in this race because we know we can win it."

So far, Booker has received 40,000 donations from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

"This moment is a testimony to the power of what's possible when people unite in common purpose."

Booker made the plea about a week ago, just before the Democratic Party announced increased requirements to participate in the next primary debates in November and December. The new threshold is at least 165,000 unique donors, including a minimum of 600 donors per state in at least 20 states. Candidates also must receive support of 3 percent or more in at least four party-approved national polls or single state polls in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.