RNC releases criteria for second GOP debate

The Republican National Committee (RNC) this week released eligibility criteria for presidential candidates to make the second GOP debate.

Candidates will need to meet higher polling and donor thresholds in order to make the second GOP debate scheduled on Sept. 27 at the Ronald Regan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

They will need to have a minimum of 50,000 unique donors, including 200 donors in 20 states or more each, according to a person familiar with the plans.

Candidates will also need to register at a minimum of 3 percent in two national polls or poll at 3 percent in one national poll and 3 percent in two polls conducted in two early states, which include Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, according to the person familiar.

Politico was the first to report the RNC’s second debate criteria. The thresholds are higher than the ones used for the first GOP debate in Milwaukee this month.

For the first debate Aug. 23, candidates need to have a minimum of 40,000 unique donors, including 200 or more from 20 or more states each. Candidates also needed to register at 1 percent in three national polls or two national polls and two early state polls — and sign a pledge saying they’ll support the eventual GOP nominee.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel argued in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday that the group “should be stepping up the criteria.”

“Once you get on the debate stage and you get in front of the American people, if you’re not having momentum, if you’re not showing growth in your campaign, then that’s a problem,” McDaniel said on Fox News in support of the second debate criteria,” she said.

McDaniel compared the second debate to the Olympics and called the first debate the “prelims.”

“And we need to make sure that we are putting in front of the Republican primary voters, the candidate who is going to take on Joe Biden,” she continued. “And I say this all the time, you know, you don’t go to the Olympics unless you pass the prelims, right? This is the Olympic stage of the Republican Party primary and there’s going to be criteria that you have to meet to be on that stage.”

So far, the candidates who have qualified for the first GOP debate include former President Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Trump has yet to commit to taking part in either debate.

Updated: 2:19 p.m. ET