Vivek Ramaswamy says he’s qualified for the RNC debate

Vivek Ramaswamy has officially qualified for the upcoming Republican National Committee debate in August, his campaign told Semafor.

Ramaswamy, a successful investor running on an “America First” platform that he says will build on Donald Trump’s presidency, wasn’t registering in the polls when he first announced his presidential run in February. His campaign says he met the RNC’s 40,000 donor fundraising requirement back in May and that they have over 65,000 unique donors to date. He’s also officially met the RNC polling rule, which requires a candidate to have at least 1% in three separate independent national surveys recognized by the committee. As part of his finance efforts, he’s offered fundraisers the chance to keep 10% of any donations they raise for his campaign.

His team cited the July 9-12 and July 14-16 Morning Consult polls, where Ramaswamy sat at third place with 8% support, as well as the recently released Kaplan Strategies poll, conducted July 17-18, that had the 37-year-old tied for second place with 12% of support. Other polls have Ramaswamy lower on the list — the Real Clear Politics average has him at fourth place with 5.3% support nationally.