Eight Republican presidential candidates have met the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) new criteria to participate in the first GOP debate on 23 August.
Former president Donald Trump, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, South Carolina senator Tim Scott and North Dakota governor Doug Burgum and former vice president Mike Pence have all qualified.
All eight candidates have had at least 40,000 unique donors from 20+ states and/or territories contribute to their campaigns and maintained at least one per cent in two national polls and two early state polls.
This past year, the RNC added a list of criteria that candidates must meet to qualify for the first debate, as the pool of GOP hopefuls grows larger each passing month.
In addition to the 40,000 unique donors and one per cent polling, candidates also must commit to supporting the RNC’s eventual nominee and not participate in any non-RNC sanctioned debates for the remainder of the election cycle.
The first debate is set to occur at the end of August in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
As of now, Mr Trump is leading in most national polls but the ex-president said he is unsure if he will attend the first RNC debate.
In an interview with Fox News, Mr Trump said: “Ronald Reagan didn’t do it, and a lot of other people didn’t do it. When you have a big lead, you don’t do it.”
Trailing behind Mr Trump is Mr DeSantis, who said he plans to show up to the debate regardless of Mr Trump’s decision.
Mr DeSantis was thought to be the leading rival against Mr Trump, however, recent polling shows other candidates catching up to the Florida governor like Mr Ramaswamy and Ms Haley.
Mr Ramaswamy is experiencing a polling boom as voters in New Hampshire indicated there’s an 18 per cent chance they’d consider him as a second choice. Nationally, he’s polling at 10 per cent, according to RealClearPolitics.
Mr Ramaswamy’s campaign said he had met the criteria, which he called “stringent but fair.”
“I am a first-time candidate who started with very low name ID, no political donors and no pre-existing fundraising lists,” Mr Ramaswamy said in a statement. “If an outsider can clear the bar, politically experienced candidates should be able to as well.”
Ms Haley is slightly behind Mr Ramaswamy, polling at 14 per cent in South Carolina, according to a Fox Business poll, and four per cent nationally, according to RealClearPolitics.
Mr Scott and Mr Christie both announced last week they had met the 40,000 unique donors threshold. Polling shows both candidates maintaining approximately two per cent favorability in national polls and six to eight per cent in New Hampshire.
Mr Burgum, who received contributions from donors after offering donors the chance to win $20 gift cards, met the qualifications for the debate this past week after polling one per cent in a second national poll.
Just weeks before the debate, Mr Pence received 40,000 donors officially making himself eligible to join the debate stage. The ex-vice president had already met national polling requirements earlier in the summer.
While the eight have qualified as of 27 July, other candidates may join the debate stage as they have until 21 August to meet the criteria.
Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson told Good Morning America last week that he had not met the 40,000 donor threshold yet. National polling shows Mr Hutchinson hovering around the one per cent mark.
