Former Vice President Mike Pence has surpassed the required threshold of 40,000 individual donors to participate in the GOP primary debate later this month, according to multiple reports.
Pence will face off against other GOP candidates on the debate stage who also met the qualifications. So far, the list includes former President Donald Trump, who has said he may not participate in the debate; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; businessman Vivek Ramaswamy; former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley; Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.); former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, according to Politico’s debate tracker.
The candidates were required to reach 40,000 individual donors and earn at least 1% support in polling. Trump, who has been indicted three times in the past four months, was leading the polls with a support rate of 47%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll last week. DeSantis followed with 13%.
The remaining candidates, including Pence, remained in the single digits in the poll.
Pence has drawn an onslaught of media attention triggered by Trump’s indictment over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Trump has attacked Pence, who testified before the grand jury in the special counsel’s investigation, claiming still that his then-vice president had the power to overturn the 2020 election.
“President Trump was wrong then and he’s wrong now. I had no power to overturn the election,” the former Vice President told Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“I truly do believe that we kept our oath to the Constitution that day. But the American people deserve to know that President Trump, you know, asked me to put him over my oath to the Constitution, but I kept my oath, and I always will,” Pence said. “And I’m running for president in part because I think anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.”
The debate will be hosted by Fox News, which first reported on Pence’s qualification, on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.