The Lineup for the First Republican Presidential Debate

Hutchinson

Scott

Burgum

Haley

Ramaswamy

DeSantis

Christie

Pence

Eight candidates have qualified for the first Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday, the Republican National Committee announced on Monday night. Former President Donald J. Trump, the clear front-runner in polling, won’t be there. Instead, he has recorded an interview with Tucker Carlson that is expected to post at the same time as the debate.

To participate in the debate, each candidate had to satisfy fund-raising and polling criteria set by the R.N.C. They each needed 40,000 campaign donors, including at least 200 donors from 20 states. And they needed support from 1 percent of Republican voters in three national polls, or in two national polls and two polls in the early primary states.

Candidates had until 9 p.m. on Monday to meet these requirements. Those who did also had to sign a pledge to follow several R.N.C. guidelines, including a promise to support the eventual Republican nominee. Mr. Trump, though he easily surpassed the fund-raising and polling thresholds, refused to sign.

Who qualified and who did not

	Met goal according to a New York Times analysis
	Met financial goal according to the campaign

Candidate	Number of donors	States with 200 donors	Polling level met
Donald J. Trump Trump Former president and businessman
Ron DeSantis DeSantis Governor of Florida
Mike Pence Pence Former vice president
Tim Scott Scott Senator from South Carolina
Nikki Haley Haley Former governor and U.N. ambassador
Vivek Ramaswamy Ramaswamy Entrepreneur and author
Chris Christie Christie Former governor of New Jersey
Doug Burgum Burgum Governor of North Dakota
Asa Hutchinson Hutchinson Former governor of Arkansas
Francis Suarez Suarez Mayor of Miami			No
Larry Elder Elder Conservative talk radio host			No
Perry Johnson Johnson Businessman			No
Will Hurd Hurd Former congressman from Texas			No

The other candidates who have met the money and polling goals have signed the pledge, though many previously expressed uncertainty about it.

For several candidates, the threshold of 40,000 individual donors proved particularly challenging. Former Vice President Mike Pence has consistently polled above the required 1 percent nationally, but at the end of June he had yet to reach even half of the required number of donors. But on Aug. 7, Mr. Pence’s campaign said that he had fulfilled the donor thresholds to qualify for the debate.

Some candidates, like Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur, offered financial incentives to donors to try to reach their goals. After offering donors $20 gift cards for $1 donations, Mr. Burgum said on July 19 that he had hit the donor requirement for the debate. Candidates’ financial reports for July and August will not be filed with the Federal Election Commission until this fall, after the first scheduled debate.

Mr. Trump eclipsed all the other candidates by a wide margin in his number of campaign donors in the first half of the year. His fund-raising surged after each of his first two indictments.

The R.N.C.’s polling requirements have left some room for ambiguity. The committee published standards that polls had to meet, but it has generally refused to confirm which surveys count.

Three candidates all fell short, according to the R.N.C.: Perry Johnson, a businessman who previously tried to run for governor of Michigan; Mayor Francis X. Suarez of Miami; and Larry Elder, a talk-show host who once ran for governor of California. The candidates themselves claimed to have qualified for the debate. Mr. Johnson said in a statement on Tuesday that the R.N.C. disqualified him “based on flawed and biased polling assessments.”