The RNC “has floated a plan to multiple campaigns for the first debate, scheduled for August, of only allowing candidates that are polling at 1% or higher and have had at least 40,000 donors,” Time reports.
“If the committee sticks with the proposed criteria for the first debate in August, it will mark a change from the first debate of the 2016 cycle. The first GOP debate in August 2015 was split in two, with a prime-time debate for the ten candidates who averaged the highest national polling numbers, and an earlier undercard debate for candidates that didn’t make the top ten. The candidates with the lowest polling that secured a spot in prime-time were polling around 3%, according to a CNN report at the time. The RNC did not factor in a candidate’s donors in the criteria for that debate.”
