DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – After all was said and done, Michigan businessman and 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Perry Johnson did not meet the criteria to make it onto the debate stage in Milwaukee tonight for the first presidential debate of the election season. Johnson will not be onstage with the other candidates including former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, and ex-Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.
The eight candidates who will be at the Republican National Committee/Fox News Channel debate made the cut by securing enough donations and meeting polling thresholds. They also pledged to support the eventual 2024 Republican nominee.
Perry and conservative radio host Larry Elder, who also didn’t make the debate stage, have both vowed to sue the Republican National Committee (RNC) over failing to quality for the debate. Perry said in a news release, “The corrupt and rigged RNC debate process has been a trainwreck from the beginning. It is clear that from the beginning, the RNC knew who they wanted on the stage and who they wanted to ban from the stage. Simply put, this is a flawed decision of a poorly run process of a corrupt organization. This morning, I am working with my team to take legal action against the RNC.”
Perry’s campaign released a statement about the timeline of the events that took place that led him to believe he had qualified for the debate up until an 11 pm phone call on Monday, August 21st by RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and Republican National Committeeman David Bossie explaining that two of Perry’s submitted polls would not be counted and that Perry would not be on the debate stage.
Perry, a self-funded candidate and a long shot in the presidential race, has loaned his campaign more than $8 million and in a bid to get on the debate stage had offered donors $10 gas cards if they donated $1 to him.
Perry also didn’t have much luck when he was running to be Michigan’s governor in 2022. That cost him more than $7 million but he ended up being disqualified because of fraudulent signatures by a company he paid to circulate nominating petitions.
Another long shot in the presidential race, Larry Elder, plans to sue the RNC. He wrote in a tweet, “I intend to sue the RNC to halt Wednesday’s presidential debate. I said from the beginning that it appeared the rules of the game were rigged, little did we know just how rigged it is. For some reason, the establishment leaders at the RNC are afraid of having my voice on the debate stage. Just as I had to fight to successfully be on the ballot in the California recall election, I will fight to be on that debate stage because I fully met all of the requirements to do so.”
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According to the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF), Elder’s campaign said the RNC informed the candidate that one of the polls that he submitted did not qualify because it had ties with former President Donald Trump – and Johnson also argued that the RNC “wrongly excluded qualifying polls” according to his press release.
The DCNF said, “A source familiar with the RNC’s debate qualification process confirmed with the DCNF that Elder, Johnson, Hurd and Suarez did not meet the committee’s polling requirements to make the debate stage. The candidates’ submitted surveys were disqualified due to sample size issues, being sponsored by an organization affiliated with a campaign and not counting as a national poll.”
RNC spokesman Keith Schipper told the DCNF in a statement, “The RNC worked over two years to deliver a transparent and fair primary process that will put our eventual nominee in the best position to beat Biden. Criteria to qualify for the first debate was clearly presented to campaigns and RNC leadership and members of the debate committee were in constant communication with candidates and campaigns throughout the qualifying period.”
Also not making it to the debate stage are Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Former Texas Rep. Will Hurd, neither of which have expressed any intentions to sue the RNC. However, Hurd doesn’t consider the qualification requirements to necessarily be not he up-and-up. Hurd said in a statement, “The lack of transparency and confusion around the RNC’s debate requirements is antithetical to the democratic process. The polling standards are arbitrary, unclear, and lack consistency. This is an unacceptable process for a presidential election. The American people deserve better. The RNC discounted polls that included independents and Democrats willing to vote for a Republican. If the GOP is looking to grow our electorate and beat Joe Biden, then we better have a clear understanding of what qualifies as a likely Republican voter.”
Also not appearing on the debate stage tonight is former President Donald Trump – but that is voluntary. Not only is Trump not going to the debate in Milwaukee, he has said that he won’t be attending any Republican primary debates. President Trump said on his Truth Social account, “The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had. I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!”
The two-hour RNC debate will appear on the Fox News Channel tonight starting at 9:00 p.m. ET and will be moderated by hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.
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