Chris Christie qualifies for third RNC debate

2024 Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said he has reached the donor requirement for the third Republican National Committee debate and will appear onstage.

Christie’s campaign confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the former New Jersey governor surpassed the RNC’s requirement of 70,000 unique donors. He previously met the RNC’s polling requirement of reaching 4% in two national polls or 4% in one national poll and 4% in two statewide polls.

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The New Jersey Republican received 4% in two state polls, CNN/UNH Granite State Poll and Fox Business, as well as 4% in a national poll from InsiderAdvantage, according to poll tracking by Politico.

Christie brought in $3.7 million during the third quarter of campaign fundraising and spent $1.4 million. He disclosed $3.9 million cash on hand. The campaign has touted the fact that it has no debt.

The former governor now joins former President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Vivek Ramaswamy, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in qualifying for the debate. Trump, as he did with the previous two RNC debates, will not be attending the third debate.

The former president’s advisers called on the RNC to cancel the debate, which is scheduled for Nov. 8 in Miami, to “refocus its manpower and money” on preventing a Democratic win in 2024. In the previous two debates, Trump participated in counterprogramming efforts to distract attention from his GOP competitors. For the third debate, Trump will appear at a rally in Florida hours before.

A Messenger-Harris poll was taken last month immediately following the second Republican primary debate hosted by the RNC and Fox News. The poll found that 51% of Trump supporters did not approve of the president declining to attend the debate, while 49% said it was the right decision.

Christie has made attacking Trump a focal point of his presidential campaign, particularly in debates. He’s capitalized on the angle that Trump is a “convicted felon” and targets the former president’s many legal cases at the state and federal level in campaign talking points.

The super PAC backing Christie, Tell It Like It Is, recently released a 60-second ad attacking Trump for comments he made about Hezbollah being “very smart” in the wake of the war between Hamas and Israel.

“We cannot once again nominate a fool like this and get him anywhere near the presidency of the United States. And having a fool like Donald Trump who would make those comments, in the tone that he made them, has proven to folks that he has no business being president of the United States,” Christie said in the ad.

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Trump maintains a significant lead over the other GOP candidates. His RealClearPolitics average is at 58.8%, with DeSantis at 13%, Haley at 8.3%, Ramaswamy at 4.8%, and Christie at 2.4%.

Last month, Christie told the New York Times, “If I don’t do well in New Hampshire, then I’ll leave,” referring to the state’s primary.