Chris Christie claims to meet polling and donor requirements for fourth GOP debate

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie claims he has qualified for the fourth Republican National Committee primary debate next month in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Speaking on conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt‘s show Wednesday afternoon, Christie said he had met both the RNC’s 80,000 unique donors requirement and the polling requirement of 6% in two national polls or 6% in one national poll and 6% in one early nominating state poll.

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“I have qualified, Hugh. The great news is just two days ago we passed the 80,000 mark. We had already qualified under the polling. But we are working hard,” Christie said. “You know, they’re setting high standards here, and getting there, we had to work very hard to make sure. But I want to give you some perspective, because you were also involved watching me run eight years ago. At this time eight years ago, we had 8,600 donors. Today, we have over 81,000 donors.”

Christie’s campaign said after last week’s third GOP debate in Miami, Florida, that they had “seen the best fundraising week of the campaign since he announced, bringing in thousands of new donors in just the five days since.”

The RNC has not confirmed whether the polls Christie cites meet their polling requirement and likely won’t confirm the debate participants until two days before the Dec. 6 debate. A Liberal Patriot/YouGov survey showed Christie at 10% support, but the poll was conducted Sept. 7-18, three days past the RNC’s Sept. 15 cutoff for qualifying polls. The campaign also highlighted a WPA Intelligence/FairVote poll, which showed Christie at 8.5% support, although it is also unclear whether the RNC will accept the poll.

The Washington Examiner reached out to the RNC for comment.

Christie, however, claimed that he is among the five credible candidates still seeking the GOP nomination.

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“When I started, people said, ‘Oh, there’s no chance. There’s no appetite in the Republican Party for the truth, for the truth about Donald Trump, for the truth about what our country needs to do.’ And I think we’ve proven that that’s absolutely wrong,” said Christie. “There is an appetite for it. Now, as we get to these next 60 days, there has to be distinctions made between myself and the others onstage. And I think we started to do that at the third debate because there were substantive questions being asked.”

After Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) dropped out of the presidential race Sunday night, it appears likely only four candidates will make the debate stage: Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and Christie. Trump, who currently leads the GOP field, previously said he would skip the Alabama debate.