Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Sunday he's qualified for the first GOP primary debate, scheduled for Wednesday in Milwaukee, noting that he's submitted 42,000 individual donors to the Republican National Committee to meet its requirements.
"I'm pleased to announce that we have met all the criteria that the RNC set to be on the debate stage," Hutchinson, a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, told CNN's "State of the Union." "We've met the polling criteria, and now we've met the 40,000 individual donor criteria."
The RNC requires that candidates must have at least 40,000 unique donors, including 200 unique donors per state, and reach at least 1% in three national polls or at least 1% in two national polls and two separate polls from early voting states.
The candidates are also expected to sign a loyalty pledge to back the eventual Republican nominee. Hutchinson has pushed against the pledge in the past, saying that he didn't think it should be required, but he told CNN Sunday that he will sign the pledge, as he is "confident that Donald Trump's not going to be the nominee."
Trump has also said he is not going to participate in Wednesday's debate, and Hutchinson said that he expects, as a result, the debate will be "even more important" without him there, "because this is the first time voters are going to be able to contrast the candidates and their positions."
However, he also told CNN Sunday that he thinks Trump's actions on Jan. 6, 2021 were likely a violation of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which would disqualify him from holding the presidency again.
"You can't be asking us to support somebody that's not perhaps even qualified under our Constitution, and I'm referring to the 14th Amendment," Hutchinson said. "A number of legal scholars said that he is disqualified because of his actions on Jan. 6."
The former governor said the courts should decide on Trump's campaign, so "there would have to be a separate lawsuit that would be filed, in which there would be a finding that the former president engaged in insurrection, and that would disqualify him."
Another way would be for a specific state to determine Trump is not qualified to be on the ballot, "and then that would put the burden on someone else challenging that. Either way, it winds up in court for a specific finding.”
Hutchinson said he expects the lawsuits to be filed and some states to take action, as "it's a serious jeopardy for Donald Trump under our Constitution, not being qualified.”
Meanwhile, Hutchinson has had some trouble meeting the donation threshold, but on Friday announced his campaign was raffling off movie tickets to bring in more contributors, after commenting last month that some of the gimmicks some candidates were using "illustrate how silly this whole concept is."
In a press release Sunday, Hutchinson thanked those who contributed to his campaign and "helped ensure my message of consistent, commonsense, conservative leadership is represented on the debate stage ... I intend to continue speaking the truth when it comes to the responsibility that Donald Trump bears for the attacks on our democracy and justice system. I look forward to a substantive debate in Milwaukee."
Hutchinson gathered 5,040 total donations from 4,148 unique donors at the end of the last quarter, and since July 1, he added a total of 43,197 donations from an additional 37,116 unique donors. He said he has received donations from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and all U.S. territories.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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