POLITICS
Second Republican debate candidate lineup: Who has confirmed? Will Donald Trump attend?
Find out what requirements candidates must meet to participate in the upcoming debate with a big name missing.
This Wednesday the second Republican debate will take place ahead of the 2024 primaries. The event will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California, promptly at 9:00 p.m. ET.
Unlike the first debate that brought together eight Republican candidates, the second will only have the participation of seven, since not all of them managed to meet the necessary requirements set by the Republican National Committee (RNC).
The confirmed candidates
According to the RNC, the candidates who met the requirements and will face each other in this Wednesday's debate are:
- Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida
- Mike Pence, former vice president
- Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota
- Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey
- Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina
- Vivek Ramaswam, businessman
- Tim Scott, Senator from South Carolina
Taking into account the list of confirmed candidates, the only one who failed to meet the requirements compared to the previous debate was the former governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson.
Despite meeting all the requirements and being the Party’s strongest candidate, Donald Trump will not be present in the debates, precisely for the same reason. The former president is ahead in the polls, so he does not see it necessary to go to debate.
“The new poll that just came out from CBS has me leading the field with ‘legendary’ numbers... SO, I WILL NOT BE IN THE DEBATES,” Trump wrote in August via Truth Social.
Instead, he will address a non-union area of the UAW strike in Michigan.
What requirements must candidates meet to participate?
The requirements that the candidates had to meet to participate on this occasion are:
- Have at least 50,000 unique donors, of which,200 must come from 20 different states or territories
- Get at least 3% in two national polls or one national poll
- Get at least 3% in two polls in four of the early voting states: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina
- Having signed the “Beat Biden” pledge, promising to support the Republican candidate who is finally selected.
Asa Hutchinson was left out of the second debate due to a lack of donors.