CONCORD, N.H. — Two candidates who were on the stage for the first GOP debate are still shy of the thresholds needed to make the second one on Sept. 27. Both are critical of the Republican National Committee’s standards for qualification. And both are mulling what’s next if they miss out on next week’s showcase.
Neither North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum nor former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has met the polling requirements needed to qualify for the debate, according to an NBC News analysis. Burgum said the national polling requirement is a “goofy clubhouse rule.”
“It shouldn’t be political polls. It shouldn’t be the pundits. It shouldn’t be party leaders to decide who gets to be on the ballot. It should be the voters to decide who to support,” Burgum told reporters after a retail stop with New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu in Laconia. “And Iowa and New Hampshire do a fantastic job of thinning the field.”
Burgum claims he does not have some of the same name recognition as other candidates. “I haven’t held national office, haven’t been part of the D.C. swamp, you know, haven’t been a pundit on TV,” he said.
He says his campaign has been spending money to try to raise his national name recognition. “I would rather have spent that money in Iowa and New Hampshire and spent that money actually getting out here and talking to real voters,” Burgum said.
Burgum intends to keep running regardless. “We’re going to be on the ballot in Iowa and New Hampshire whether we are part of this debate or not,” he said.
Hutchinson, on the other hand, says he will evaluate the situation if he misses out. “I’ll look at it and make a decision. I’ll have to talk to donors, and I’ll have to talk to — look at the polling numbers that we have. So that decision will be made, but again, I expect to make it,” he said.
Hutchinson is also critical of the RNC’s debate requirements. He believes the RNC “is trying to shrink the list very quickly and artificially.”
The former Arkansas governor, who also lacks the national name recognition that some of the other Republican candidates in this race have, feels the national polling requirement “does micromanage, actually, campaigns and tell them what they have to spend money for.”
“I can’t make decisions that I want to do large town hall meetings because I’ve got to make sure I spend money to build the donor base. I’ve got to make sure I spend money to build national profile,” Hutchinson told reporters after speaking on a law enforcement roundtable in Nashua, New Hampshire.
“I understand criteria. You got to set some standards,” Hutchinson told NBC News. But he added: “But the fact is the criteria that's been set is the most stringent in the history of debates. And it is intentionally designed to limit the field and to take away the choice from voters. So it is problematic, and it also directs the candidates how to spend money.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, Hutchinson was also just shy of the 50,000 unique donor requirement. “The last time I checked, we were just right at that. So the donor is really not an issue there. So I know that we’re going to make that. And so that’s done. It’s just the polling that we have to have,” he said.
