North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum appears to have qualified for the second GOP primary debate next Wednesday after having cultivated more than 3% of likely 2024 voters in a national poll.
Although no candidate will officially be on the debate stage until verified by the Republican National Convention, Burgum earned 3.2% in a Trafalgar Group National Poll, tying with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and ranking slightly above Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).
HOW REPUBLICANS ARE EXPANDING THEIR REACH IN STATE ELECTIONS
New @trafalgar_group National #GOP Caucus #poll
56.1% @realDonaldTrump
14.3% @rondesantis
5.9% @VivekGRamaswamy
4.2% @NikkiHaley
3.8% @mike_pence
3.2% @DougBurgum
3.2% @ChrisChristie
3.0% @votetimscott
1.3% @larryelder
1.1% @PJQualityGuru
0.4% @AsaHutchinson
0.2% @RyanBinkley… pic.twitter.com/3J4UqGEa0p— The Trafalgar Group (@trafalgar_group) September 23, 2023
Candidates need to meet the threshold of 50,000 individual donors and gather at least 3% of the vote in either two national polls or one national poll and two early-primary state polls to qualify.
Burgum met the two state-level polling standards with an August Trafalgar Group poll in Iowa and a September InsiderAdvantage poll in New Hampshire.
Seven other candidates have met the ostensible qualifications to make it to the debate stage in Simi Valley, California, on Wednesday. The debate stage is likely to look very similar to the first event, with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and former Vice President Mike Pence, along with Scott and Christie.
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Former President Donald Trump is again not expected to participate.
The only candidate who debated in August that has not met the RNC’s stated goals is former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who ranked at 0.4% in Trafalgar’s poll published on Saturday.
