In less than one month, the Republican National Committee's first presidential primary debate will get underway in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the eventual nominee will be officially crowned in July 2024 — and we now know which candidates have met or exceeded the RNC's requirements to qualify for participation including polling performance and fundraising totals.
Former President Donald Trump has met the polling criteria, as did Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Ambassador Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott from South Carolina, and former governor of New Jersey Chris Christie.
On the donor front, former President Trump, Gov. DeSantis, Sen. Scott, former Ambassador Haley, former Gov. Christie, Ramaswamy, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum have met the RNC's criteria.
That means only the candidates who have met both requirements — and signed a pledge to back the eventual Republican nominee — have so far qualified (as of Sunday when the latest qualifying polls from Fox Business were released) to appear on the first GOP debate stage of the 2024 cycle: Trump, DeSantis, Ramaswamy, Haley, Scott, and Christie.
Qualifying, however, does not mean confirmed attendance in the case of former president and current 2024 frontrunner Donald Trump. He has remained indecisive about whether or not he will attend the first debate. Christie, for his part, has sought to bait Trump into attending by saying a no-show would be cowardly. Will it work? Americans likely won't know Trump's plans until just before the debate if Trump's theatrical 2016 primary campaign strategy is used again in the 2024 cycle.
According to a CNN report on the first debate and candidates' path to qualifying, "Pence is the only candidate who has met the polling threshold but says he has not reached the fundraising threshold." Pence has said he "will make it" above the threshold and be on the debate stage next month.
As for former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, he's "one national poll away" from meeting that facet of the RNC's debate criteria, according to CNN, but he said in early July he'd only reached 5,000 of the 40,000 individual donors needed to qualify.
Gov. Burgum, who offered Americans $20 gift cards in return for $1 donations — dubbed "Biden Economic Relief Cards" — has cleared the donor hurdle but still needs to reach the 1 percent polling threshold in two national polls to qualify for the RNC debate stage.
Meanwhile, CNN said former Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX) and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez still "each need one state and two national polls to qualify" on that front, while neither has said they've landed enough donors to check the fundraising box. What's more, Hurd has said he refuses to support current frontrunner Donald Trump if he's the nominee, meaning he won't sign the loyalty pledge and, therefore — without an exemption from the RNC — will not meet the criteria even if he reaches the donor and polling requirements.
Whether any more candidates manage to meet the criteria to join the six who've already met the RNC's requirements — and regardless of Trump's participation — Fox News Channel's Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will no doubt draw the eyes of Americans to the debate stage in Milwaukee on August 23 as Republican contenders look to have their moment under the lights to make some moves in a field that's remained relatively unchanged so far in the cycle.
