Editor's note: The video above was originally published in March 2019 when Inslee first announced his presidential run.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee announced Friday he has qualified for the presidential debates.
Inslee, who was speaking at a climate event in Las Vegas, said that his staff had called him to say he had hit the 65,000-donor requirement to participate in the Democratic presidential debates, which begin in June.
"Thank you to every single person who's brought us this far," Inslee tweeted Friday. "Let's go get 'em and let's defeat climate change together."
To get on the debate stage, candidates have to reach certain thresholds in grassroots funding or at the polls due to a new set of rules put together by Democratic officials. With grassroots funding, candidates need to collect at least 65,000 discrete donations from individuals, including at least 200 donations from 20 different states. To go the polling route, candidates need to earn at least 1% in the polls at the national level or in the four early primary states: New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada, and South Carolina.
Inslee, who announced his campaign in March, has already hit the 1% polling threshold in three polls, according to Jared Leopold, Inslee's senior communications advisor.
Since Inslee’s policy rollout in early May, Leopold said in a tweet the campaign has seen a “surge of interest” with the donor rate increasing 40%.