Burgum makes late break for GOP's second debate

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is making a last-minute charge to the primary debate stage next week.

Burgum appears to have qualified for the second GOP debate, which is on Wednesday in California, according to POLITICO’s analysis.

He is the eighth candidate to meet those qualifications, joining former President Donald Trump — who is not expected to participate — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, businessperson Vivek Ramaswamy, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

To get on stage, candidates need to have 50,000 individual donors and hit 3 percent in a handful of polls that meet the Republican National Committee’s methodological requirements.

Burgum’s campaign has said he has already met the donor mark, and he appears to have met the polling mark on Saturday when the Trafalgar Group — a GOP-aligned pollster — released a survey that had him at 3 percent nationally. He previously hit 3 percent in a Trafalgar survey in Iowa in August, and 4 percent in an New Hampshire survey from InsiderAdvantage, another conservative polling outlet, earlier this week.

No candidate’s participation is official until confirmed by the RNC.

The debate on Wednesday is hosted by Fox Business and will broadcast from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

The stage will likely be very similar to the first showdown in August. Trump — who is expected to be in Michigan on Wednesday — skipped that one as well, and the other seven candidates who in POLITICO’s analysis qualified for the second debate all participated in the first.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is the only candidate not yet on stage for the second debate who was there for the first one. He has not met the polling threshold yet, and has until Monday to do so.

Burgum had an eventful lead-up to the first debate. He injured his leg in a pickup basketball game just before the first showdown, and his participation was in question. He ultimately took the stage and stood for the two-hour debate.