The first GOP presidential debate is less than a month away, and seven of the candidates have currently met the requirements needed to participate.
Last month, the Republican National Committee unveiled a set of requirements for candidates to take part in the GOP debates. For example, candidates must have at least 40,000 donors, respectively, for their presidential campaigns, including 200 from at least 20 states or more.
The presidential hopefuls must also be polling at 1% or higher — which can’t be that hard — in three or more national polls, according to The Hill.
The candidates who have met these requirements include former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, billionaire tycoon Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, and former Vice President Mike Pence.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Rep. Will Hurd, and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez are among those who have not met the criteria needed to participate in the debates.
With all this being said, Trump has not indicated whether he plans to take part in the highly-anticipated GOP debates. The former president has cited his high polling data as a reason for skipping the debates.
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“I’m leading by 40 points. A lot of people say, ‘Why would you do a debate when you have people at two and three and fifteen and fourteen [percent]?’” Trump told John Catsimatidis, host of the “Cats & Cosby Show” in April. “People don’t debate when they have these massive leads. They say, ‘Why would we debate?’ I would have a hostile group of anchors — a hostile network — asking questions. Why would I do that?”
“When you’re way up, you don’t do debates,” the former president continued.
A New York Times/Siena College poll from July 31 has Trump with a 37% lead over DeSantis, who is in second place.
The RNC said candidates must show their fundraising figures 48 hours before the first debate in order to participate. The committee pointed out that all candidates must sign a pledge expressing their eventual support for the nominee of the party. When candidates do this, they are promising not to participate in any third-party debates or run as a third-party candidate for the rest of the 2024 election cycle. Notably, Trump has not announced his pledge yet.
The first GOP debate will stream on Fox News, with Rumble as an online streaming partner. The Young Americas Foundation will also serve as a partner in the first debate.
