Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said Wednesday night that he’d met the Republican Party’s criteria for the first presidential debate in August, giving him the opportunity to take his campaign against Donald Trump directly to the former president — if he shows up.
Christie’s entry into the 40,000-donor club would make him the sixth candidate — of more than a dozen contenders — to qualify for the debate. Others certain or almost certain to make the stage are Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
Christie made his announcement in an interview on CNN.
Trump has publicly flirted with skipping the Fox News debate in Milwaukee on Aug. 23, saying he didn’t wish to elevate his rivals.
The Republican National Committee’s debate criteria include 40,000 unique donors of as little as $1, including 200 donors from at least 20 states. Christie told CNN he has that many donors from 36 states. The Christie campaign would not divulge the total amount raised.
Some candidates are getting creative in trying to meet the threshold, sometimes spending more money on fundraising than they’re bringing in. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, for example, is giving away a free US flag to anyone who donates $1.
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Qualifying candidates also must have support from at least 1% of Republican voters in three qualifying national polls or two national polls and one early-state poll. Christie is averaging 2.5% support in the RealClearPolitics national average and is in third place in New Hampshire with 4.7%.
The former governor and federal prosecutor has made debating Trump the centerpiece of his campaign, saying he’s the only challenger who will confront the former president directly — a lesson he says he learned in his unsuccessful 2016 primary campaign.
“I don’t know how you beat a clear front-runner like Donald Trump without beating Donald Trump,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “I think they hope somehow Donald Trump collapses from the weight of all of these criminal issues he has got, and that when they haven’t said anything negative about him they are hoping to then inherit some portion of those voters that otherwise would have voted for Donald Trump. I don’t think that is the way politics works.”
To make the debate, candidates also have to sign a loyalty pledge to support the party’s eventual nominee — something Christie said he would do, reluctantly.
“I think the loyalty pledge is a dumb idea, but it is a requirement to get on the stage,” he said in the CNN interview. “I’ll take it every bit as seriously as Donald Trump took it in 2016.”