Sen. Amy Klobuchar qualifies for next Democratic debate

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar has qualified for the fifth Democratic presidential primary debate thanks to a small uptick in national polls.

The Minnesota senator's campaign confirmed Thursday that she has now met the polling and fundraising requirements needed to join the Nov. 20 debate in Georgia.

A new national survey released Thursday by Quinnipiac University showed Klobuchar hitting 3% support. That's the fourth national poll where Klobuchar hit 3%, the baseline set by the Democratic National Committee.

Klobuchar previously reached the DNC's fundraising requirement for the November debate by amassing 165,000 individual donors.

Nine candidates have qualified so far for the MSNBC/Washington Post-sponsored debate in Atlanta. Klobuchar will be joined on stage by Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren and Andrew Yang. The other candidates have until Nov. 13 to qualify.

Klobuchar's campaign has reported a fundraising surge since the last debate on Oct. 15. That meeting of the candidates saw Klobuchar prod more aggressively at Warren, who has been battling Biden of late for frontrunner status.

In the ensuing week, Klobuchar drew favorable coverage from national media outlets that suggested she could be getting a second look from Democratic primary voters given doubts in some corners of the party about race leaders Biden, Warren and Sanders.

Since last week's debate, Klobuchar took campaign swings through New Hampshire and Iowa. She's been in Washington this week for Senate business, but she returns to New Hampshire on Friday for a town hall meeting and Democratic Party dinner in Nashua. On Saturday, she's campaigning in South Carolina.

Staff writer Patrick Condon contributed to this report.