Doug Burgum Qualifies For First GOP Presidential Debate

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) has qualified for the first GOP presidential primary debate on August 23. He is the seventh candidate to announce his eligibility.

Burgum has paid for his campaign almost completely out of his own pocket. He spent millions of dollars on television advertisements that have appeared in Iowa and New Hampshire and have helped to boost his name against some of his more well-known opponents.

In order to meet a requirement from the Republican National Committee that candidates must have 40,000 unique donors, Burgum also funded a program in which donors receive a $20 gift card when they give to his campaign., incentivizing people to support the software executive.

Burgum passed the polling threshold by hitting 1% in a national poll released by Morning Consult. The other six candidates that have raised enough to qualify for the debate stage are Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Some candidates’ presence at the August debate is still up in the air — Trump has publicly denounced the event and has claimed that he does not need the media attention, as others may.

Other Republican presidential hopefuls have not qualified for the debate stage yet: former Vice President Mike Pence and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson have both reached the polling threshold, but have not listed 40,000 donors.

Article by Ava Lombardi