When is the second Republican debate, and who has qualified for it?
When is the second Republican debate?
The second Republican primary debate will be held this week, on Sept. 27 at 9 p.m. ET, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, in Simi Valley, California, and will run two hours.
Fox Business, along with Univision, will moderate the debate, and the conservative online video platform Rumble will also stream it.
What are the requirements to qualify for the debate?
The threshold for the second debate is higher than it was for the first. Candidates must poll at 3% in two national polls or 3% in one national poll and 3% in one early state poll from two separate early-voting states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina — recognized by the Republican National Committee. For the first debate, the polling requirement was 1% in the same poll categories.
Polls must have been conducted on or after Aug. 1, and candidates have until 48 hours before the debate to meet the polling requirement.
Candidates will also need to have a minimum of 50,000 unique donors to their principal presidential campaign committee or exploratory committee, with at least 200 unique donors per state or territory in more than 20 states and/or territories. That's an increase of 10,000 unique donors over the 40,000 required to make it onstage for the first primary debate.
Who has qualified for the second debate?
The RNC announced Monday evening the seven candidates who will be participating:
- North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum
- Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
- Former Ambassador Nikki Haley
- Former Vice President Mike Pence
- Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy
- South Carolina Senator Tim Scott
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson did not qualify for the second debate.
Who's moderating the debate?
Stuart Varney and Dana Perino, of Fox News, will moderate the debate, with Univision's Ilia Calderón.
Does Trump plan to attend?
Former President Donald Trump announced will skip the second Republican primary debate to deliver a competing address the same night in Detroit, his campaign said.
The exact time and audience for the event have not been announced yet, but according to the New York Times, which first reported Trump would skip the debate, he will be addressing a union crowd. Trump is expected to speak in the same city where United Auto Workers members are striking to demand higher wages, better schedules and better benefits.
The former president also did not attend the first debate, and instead sat for an interview with Tucker Carlson that streamed at the same time the debate aired. Here's what he said about why he didn't participate: "You see the polls have come out, I'm leading by 50 and 60 points. And some of them are at one and zero and two. And I'm saying, 'Do I sit there for an hour or two hours, whatever it's going to be and get harassed by people that shouldn't even be running for president? Should I be doing that? And a network that isn't particularly friendly, frankly.'"
A week before the second debate, primary opponent Nikki Haley criticized Trump for sitting out the debate. "You can't just not be on a debate stage because you're so high in the polls," she said at an event in New Hampshire Thursday. "You've got to show not what you did in the last four years [but], what are you going to do in the next four, how are you going to fix what was broken?"
Trump has also not signed the RNC's "loyalty pledge" to support the candidate who wins the Republican nomination.
Cristina Corujo contributed to this report.
