To qualify for the stage, candidates must secure 4 percent of the vote in multiple polls and collect at least 70,000 unique donors nationwide, the RNC announced previously. That puts nearly half the GOP field at risk of missing out, including former Vice President Mike Pence, Chris Christie, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, and Asa Hutchinson.
If President Trump does not participate as expected, the stage will be winnowed to just Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Nikki Haley. The 45th president recently told advisors that he plans to skip the party’s third GOP debate, a move intended to keep his distance from his low-polling rivals in the field. He has bragged for months that he’s “up by too many points” and does not need to debate competitors who stand virtually no chance of upsetting his plans to take on President Joe Biden next year. His campaign has called for all future debates to be canceled.
President Trump has demonstrated an affinity for hosting competing events at the same time as presidential debates. He sat down with Tucker Carlson for an interview on X which surpassed the first debate’s national viewership on Fox News and spoke before union workers in Michigan while the second debate occurred, a move that forced Fox to slash its advertising rates. He continues to lead his rivals by upwards of 60 points in recent polls.
