Suarez says he’s met donor threshold for first GOP debate

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R) announced Monday that his campaign has hit the donor requirement for joining the party’s first presidential debate, bringing the White House hopeful a step closer to getting on stage with his fellow GOP candidates. 

“I am extremely pleased to announce that my campaign has today passed the 40,000 unique donor threshold set by the @GOP to make the debate stage,” Suarez said on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.

“In less than six weeks my team and I have quite literally gone from zero to a hundred and we are confident that I will be on the debate stage in two weeks,” he said. 

Before presidential candidates can get on the Aug. 23 debate stage, they must first meet several requirements set by the Republican National Committee (RNC).

They need to meet a donor benchmark of at least 40,000 unique donors, including at least 200 from 20 or more states and territories each. 

They also need to be polling at 1 percent or higher in at least three authorized national polls — or at 1 percent or higher in two national polls together with one “early state poll” from two separate “carve out” states recognized by the RNC: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

Suarez says he’s cleared the donor mark, but it appears he has yet to reach the polling requirements. FiveThirtyEight’s tracker of national polls has Suarez at an average of no more than 0.1 percent since he joined the contest. 

The candidates who appear so far to have met the polling and donor requirements are former President Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Tim Scott’s (S.C.) and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

The RNC has also said it’s asking candidates to sign a loyalty pledge to support whomever becomes the eventual Republican nominee. 

Suarez kicked off his 2024 campaign in June, becoming the third Floridian to jump into the GOP race, alongside Trump and DeSantis.