Burgum Secures Spot on GOP Debate Stage With Gift Card ‘Hack’

Republican presidential candidate North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum speaks to guests during a campaign stop at the Westside Conservative Breakfast Club meeting in Ankeny, Iowa, on June 9, 2023. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has qualified for the first Republican presidential primary debate, the candidate announced Tuesday.

The announcement comes after the candidate offered donors $20 gift cards for donations as small as $1.

Per the criteria laid out by the Republican National Committee (RNC), to qualify for the stage, candidates must poll at 1 percent in three national polls or two national polls and two polls in different early primary states.

Candidates must also boast a minimum of 40,000 unique donors, with at least 200 individual donors per state across 20 states or territories.

According to Mr. Burgum’s campaign, as of this week, he has surpassed both thresholds.

“Governor Burgum is looking forward to sharing his focus on the economy, energy, and national security at the August debate,” Lance Trover, the candidate’s campaign spokesman, said in a statement. “In less than seven weeks, Governor Burgum has exceeded all the requirements for the debate. As a Governor and business leader, Doug knows how to fix the economy, unleash American energy, and win the Cold War with China.”

The governor managed to attract the necessary number of unique donors by offering them $20 “Biden economic relief” Visa and Mastercard gift cards. In a July 10 post on Twitter, he described the ploy as “a way to help 50,000 people until we get in office and fix this crazy economy for everyone!”

The move, while controversial, is “completely legal,” or so Mr. Burgum says.

The candidate told USA Today that his campaign implemented the scheme to get around the RNC’s unique donor rule, which he said unfairly benefited “career politicians in [Washington].”

“We just said, ‘Oh, that’s the rule? Well, let’s figure out a way,’” he said. “We’ll do a hack, we’ll get around it. And we’ll do it in a way that’s completely legal and completely smart.”

Experts, however, have been divided on whether the move is above board.

Making the Cut

Mr. Burgum is now the seventh candidate to claim qualification for the debate, which is set for Aug. 23 in Milwaukee. Others who have reportedly made the cut include former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, and former President Donald Trump.

However, the RNC’s third debate requirement may narrow the competition.

Aside from meeting the polling and donor thresholds, to participate in the debate, Republican contenders must also sign a pledge to support the eventual nominee. And in a crowded field of candidates that has now expanded into the double digits, that ask may prove to be a sticking point for some.

In fact, the loyalty pledge may be one of the reasons Mr. Trump has yet to commit to attending the upcoming debate.

In February, before the pledge became a debate requirement, the former president told radio host Hugh Hewitt that his support would “depend on who the nominee was.”

Since then, Mr. Trump has also suggested that he might opt out of the debate to host his own competing event, though, in a July 16 interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, he said he was still undecided on the matter.

“It’s quite an easy question, normally. Ronald Reagan didn’t do it, and a lot of other people didn’t do it. When you have a big lead, you know, you don’t do it,” he told Ms. Bartiromo, noting his substantial lead over the rest of the primary field.

According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, Mr. Trump currently enjoys a 35.1 percent lead over his closest competitor for the GOP nomination.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, for her part, said on July 19 that she thought it would be “a mistake” for the former president to forgo the debate.

“I think it’s a mistake to not do the debates, but that’s going to be up to him and his campaign,” Ms. McDaniel told Fox News, the outlet slated to host the debate.

“I think getting in front of the American people, with the Fox audience that you’re going to bring, people are clamoring for solutions,” she added. “And this is an opportunity for us to contrast our ideas versus the Democrats. It’s not just about the primary. It’s also about the general election because we are going to need independent voters and others to win the White House.”

Debate Lineup

Despite the frontrunner’s hesitancy, other candidates have assured that they intend to participate in the upcoming debate.

One such contender is Mr. DeSantis, who has consistently polled in second place.

“I’ll be there regardless,” the Florida governor told Fox News earlier this month. “I hope everybody who’s eligible comes. I think it’s an important part of the process, and I look forward to being able to be on the stage and introducing our candidacy and our vision and our leadership to a wide audience.”

Ms. Haley has also vowed to be there, as have Mr. Scott and Mr. Ramaswamy. But in Mr. Christie’s case, the question remains as to whether he will sign the loyalty pledge in good faith, given that he told CNN’s Jake Tapper in June that he would “take the pledge in 2024 just as seriously as Donald Trump took the pledge in 2016.”

During the 2016 primaries, Mr. Trump made waves when he indicated on the debate stage that he might not support the eventual nominee.

Meanwhile, former Texas Rep. Will Hurd, who has yet to qualify for the debate, has said that he “can’t lie” and promise to support the nominee given his distaste for Mr. Trump.

Candidates will have until 48 hours prior to the debate to secure their spots on the stage.

As of yet, the RNC has not announced which candidates have met all of the outlined requirements.