CHICAGO (NewsNation) — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum qualified on Tuesday for the first Republican presidential debate by receiving 1% in the Morning Consult national poll, according to his campaign.
The presidential hopeful is the seventh candidate to meet all the requirements set by the Republican National Committee for the Aug. 23 debate in Milwaukee, despite having never held or run for national office. His most significant disadvantage in the race is that 99.8% of Americans don’t know who he is.
“Gov. Burgum is looking forward to sharing his focus on the economy, energy and national security at the August debate,” campaign spokesman Lance Trover said. “In less than 7 weeks, Governor Burgum has exceeded all the requirements for the debate. As a governor and business leader, Doug knows how to fix the economy, unleash American energy and win the Cold War with China.”
The criteria for qualifying for the first Republican National Committee debate includes 40,000 donors, a minimum of 1% support on at least three national polls or 1% support in two national polls and one state poll from two “carve out” states recognized by the RNC: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina.
In addition to the Morning Consult national poll, Burgum previously received 1% in the national JMC Analytics poll, polled 6% in the University of New Hampshire poll and 3% in the Fox Business poll of Iowa, his campaign team said.
The governor had previously reached the donor threshold, receiving contributions from well over 40,000 individual donors. He achieved this goal six weeks after announcing his 2024 run for the White House.
Seen as an underdog, the incumbent governor has two things going for him that could help him in his race for the White House: He is a sitting governor, which is the most common resume builder for previous presidents, and he has money.
The two-term governor has found creative ways to meet fundraising requirements by giving out $20 VISA and Mastercard gift cards that he called, “Biden economic relief cards,” in exchange for $1 donations.
His methods of obtaining donations, however, have been viewed by some legal experts as a “violation of campaign finance law,” CBS reported.
Campaign finance attorney Paul S. Ryan told CBS that Burgum’s giveaway scheme could potentially be viewed as a violation of federal law, explaining that it could be used as Burgum using someone else’s name to make donations — or rather, as Burgum donating to his own campaign.
However, former Federal Election Commission Chair Lee Goodman told CBS that he doesn’t see this method as unlawful, and the fact Burgum is doing it openly and in the public shows it doesn’t have corruption potential.