Tipsheet

Why One GOP Candidate Complains About Having to Be at the Iowa State Fair

Very long shot GOP presidential candidate Asa Hutchison took to MSNBC to complain about the Republican National Committee's debate requirements that need to be met to qualify. The first debate is set to take place on August 23 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

To be on the stage, a candidate must have 40,000 unique donors and have at least 1 percent support in three polls that meet the RNC's standards. As of Friday, Hutchison has not reached that threshold and so he griped having to be at the Iowa State Fair meeting people to get them to donate.

"I’m not criticizing them and their means of collecting the 40,000, but the fact is I’m not a self-funded candidate and the RNC rules is burdensome on the candidates to, instead of focusing on other ways of raising money and focusing on other styles of campaigning, I’ve got to spend all of my time at the Iowa State Fair trying to get on to the debate stage with $1 contributions, and so that’s not helpful and it’s not good for our democratic process," said Hutchison.

"I assume Donald Trump not participate in the debate simply because we want to talk about the issues and I think there’s a lot of contrast between the Republican candidates, as it stands, and it would be nice to be able to have that serious policy discussion," he added.

Hutchison admitted earlier this month he needs MSNBC viewers to donate to him in order to get on the debate stage.

It is looking more likely former President Donald Trump will not be in attendance for the debate, citing his large lead in every poll that has been conducted so far. Candidates such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum will appear at the debate.