1 year ago
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has qualified for the first GOP primary debate later this week, joining the stage in Milwaukee as a last-minute addition.
"I will be on the stage," he told host Kasie Hunt on CNN's "State of the Union" about the debate.
"I'm pleased to announce that we have met all the criteria that the RNC set to be on the debate stage. We met the polling criteria and now we've met the 40,000 individual donor criteria. We've submitted to the RNC, 42,000 individual donors."
Hutchinson cleared the qualification threshold on Sunday by surpassing the required number of donors — a requirement laid out by the Republican National Committee to make it on stage. The party committee also requires candidates to hit 1 percent in a handful of polls, a mark Hutchinson had already attained, according to POLITICO’s analysis.
Hutchinson also tweeted about the debate: "Thank you to everyone that donated for believing that consistent, commonsense, conservative leadership is needed to bring out the best of America!"
The former Arkansas governor is the 10th candidate to qualify for the debate, according to POLITICO’s tracking, alongside former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, businessperson Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and self-described “quality guru” Perry Johnson.
But at this point, it's not clear how many people will be on the stage, particularly since it has yet to be verified that all the candidates who say they have qualified have actually done so. The RNC has yet to confirm the official participation of candidates.
Also, it seems unlikely that the GOP frontrunner, Trump, will take part.
Hutchinson told Hunt that he would sign the required loyalty pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee.
"I'm going to support the nominee of the party. I do not expect it to be Donald Trump," he said. adding that he is not sure Trump is qualified to be president of the United States, based on the wording of the 14th Amendment.
Hutchinson was referring to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment: "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."
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