On Monday night, approximately 48 hours before the second presidential primary debate, the RNC made an announcement about the seven qualifying candidates. In alphabetical order they include, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Ambassador and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy, and South Carolina's Senator Tim Scott.
All seven candidates had qualified for and participated in last month's first debate in Milwaukee, as had former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, though he failed to qualify this time.
If candidate placement will be based off of poll performance, as it was last month, DeSantis and Ramaswamy can be expected to once again have the center podiums. DeSantis is currently polling with an average of 13.5 percent and Ramaswamy currently is at 6.8 percent, according to RealClearPolitics.
Former and potentially future President Donald Trump was absent from that list and has already announced he will be absent from the second debate, just as he was absent from the first. Instead, he plans to meet with the autoworkers in Detroit who are currently participating in the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike.
The debate will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California at 9pm EST.
A statement from RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel emphasized the importance of such a location. "Wednesday’s debate is another opportunity for the RNC to share our diverse candidate field with the American people. The Republican Party is united around one common goal – Beating Biden – and there is no better place to showcase our conservative vision for the future than the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library," she said.
The Biden reelection campaign has planned to send Gov. Gavin Newsom--who swears he's not running for president and is supporting the Biden-Harris ticket for 2024--to the debate to lead response efforts.
What response the Biden reelection campaign has already given thus far shows quite the obsessive preoccupation with focusing on "MAGA Republicans" and "MAGAnomics" while trying to sell the "Bidenomics" that polls continuously show the American people are not buying.
A third RNC debate will take on November 8, with the new polling threshold for candidates to qualify being at 4 percent in two national surveys or 4 percent in an early state poll from two separate states, which must be conducted on or after September 1.