Mayor Bill de Blasio may have jumped the gun about his status on the presidential debate stage.
The mayor told reporters Wednesday that he received a text message from Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez informing him that he met the qualifications for a spot at the first debate, which will be held over two nights on June 26 and June 27 at the Arsht Center in Miami.
In order to participate, candidates had to reach 1% support in three polls from selected organizations that were released between January and Wednesday, and must have raised money from at least 65,000 unique donors.
"We have six qualifying polls at the minimum level," de Blasio explained. "From my understanding, there is a group of candidates who don’t have that."
However, a few hours later, DNC spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa tweeted that the mayor completely misinterpreted the text message.
"Mayor @BilldeBlasio asked @TomPerez about a Reuters poll, and Tom confirmed that the poll does indeed count, as has been reported by other media outlets. The DNC has not confirmed to any candidate whether they have or have not made the debate stage," she tweeted.
The mayor’s campaign didn’t immediately return a message to clarify the situation. amNewYork’s calls to the DNC were not immediately returned.
De Blasio said during the news conference that he is still awaiting official confirmation.
"Like everyone else, I want to see the final announcement from the DNC tomorrow, but every indication we’ve been given is that I will be in," he said.
De Blasio hasn’t fared well in two major polls released since he announced his candidacy last month. A Quinnipiac University Poll released in May found that he only had an 8% favorability rating among national voters, while another survey released this weekend reported that no Iowa Democratic caucus voter put de Blasio as their first or second choice candidate.
Currently, there are 23 candidates vying for the Democratic nomination.
