Six GOP primary candidates, including former President Donald Trump, are just one poll away from reaching the qualifying criteria for the first debate next month, but former Vice President Mike Pence is not yet one of them.
The Republican National Committee set the parameters for its first GOP primary debate next month and Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., are close to having the prerequisites for the Republican National Committee's polling and fundraising parameters, according to Politico.
A source from the RNC told Newsmax there are currently no GOP presidential candidates to have reached the criteria to qualify for the debate, with the leading six needed at least one more poll.
Pence has said his campaign remains short of the 40,000 donor threshold, despite being strong enough to qualify with the next poll, too.
The first GOP primary debate next month will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the same location picked for the 2024 Republican National Convention.
Election analysis conducted by Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball has projected Wisconsin to be the most pivotal battleground state in the next presidential election.
In its first edition of the 2024 Electoral College projection, assuming polling leaders President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are the respective nominees, states likely to lean Democrat or Republican are given the electors, leaving Democrats at 260 and Republicans at 235.
The remaining 43 electoral votes — which the GOP needs to win 82% of (35) — are toss-ups with Georgia (16), Arizona (11), Wisconsin (10), and Nevada (6).
If Biden just wins Wisconsin's 10 votes, it would be enough to reach 270 to clinch the presidential election. It really puts a big onus on that state — assuming all the other states hold as the projections forecast.
Wisconsin has been a blue wall state, but one Trump did crack in 2016. Only Trump (2016), Ronald Reagan (1984 and 1980), and Richard Nixon (1972 and 1968) have won that state for the Republican Party versus the Democrat in more than 60 years.
Wisconsin might take over the status as the bellwether state Ohio once was before Trump broke that trend by winning that state in 2020, but Biden secured the Electoral College votes to become president.
Notably, Wisconsin is infamously the home state of anti-Trump former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who is vowing to lead the never-Trump faction of the GOP and sits on the board of Fox News, a network Trump told Newsmax this week is "hostile" to him.
The RNC under Chair Ronna McDaniel have set polling, fundraising, and candidate pledge to support the nominee as the criteria needed to reach the debate stage.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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