(LibertySociety.com) – As the first GOP presidential debate is just weeks away, some candidates have already met the requirements for participating, while others are cutting it close. The Republican National Committee (RNC) requires candidates to poll at 1% or higher in four polls, which include two unique state polls and two national polls. Candidates must also have at least 40,000 individual donors, and they must all vow to support the ultimate victor of the GOP primaries. It is still unclear if former President Trump will participate in the first debate, but he has certainly met the threshold for qualifying to participate.
Other candidates who have reached the 1% polling requirement include former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina U.S. Senator Tim Scott, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur and political activist Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. All of these candidates have met the 40,000-donor requirement, with the exception of Pence. He told CNN’s Dana Bash that he does not doubt that he will garner enough individual donors before the debate, stating that his campaign is “making incredible progress toward that goal.”
Several other candidates, including former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, are just shy of qualifying for the debates and are awaiting new polling to be released. The first debate will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 23, giving unqualified candidates just under a month to reach their goals. Fox News anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will moderate the event, with the RNC partnering with the online streaming platform Rumble, to reach more voters who do not have cable subscriptions.
Former President Trump has a long-standing dispute with Bret Baier after Baier faced widespread backlash for his role in the network’s decision to call Arizona for Biden early the night of the 2020 election. Although former President Trump recently sat for a one-on-one interview with Baier, he is still critical of Baier’s 2020 actions.
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