Vivek Ramaswamy to take the debate stage in GOP primary election, he announced Friday on Twitter.

The first GOP primary debate will be on August 23rd, and the RNC announced specific criteria to be eligible:

The RNC announced Friday that to be eligible for the first debate on August 21, a candidate must have donations from at least 40,000 unique campaign donors with at least 200 per state in 20+ states and/or territories. They also have to be polling at “1% in three national polls OR 1% in two national polls and 1% in one early state poll from two separate ‘carve out’ states.” – The Post Millennial

Vivek took to Twitter without hesitation to say that he met those requirements in May and stated, “Now we’ve actually got to put our foot on the gas.”

Good news: officially on the debate stage. Buckle up. pic.twitter.com/V52CcADHDP

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) June 2, 2023

And I loved when he said this:

He finished by saying, “If we’re going to be saved. It’s not going to be me or anyone else coming from on high to do it. If we’re going to be saved, it’s going to be because we save ourselves and I am so grateful for you guys doing everything that you’ve already done to get me at the center of that debate stage. Believe me, I will not let you down.”

Yes, we have to save ourselves, agreed wholeheartedly. It’s American; it’s the way. I like that this man is getting out and about amongst the American people and talking to them. While Vivek may occasionally appear in the mainstream media, you’ll mostly find him on the road and going to multiple events in one day, and his schedule is jammed packed most every day. That’s what you do if you want to get elected.

The crowd here doesn’t look big and fanciful, but I don’t care. He is out there talking to the voting Americans face-to-face and not through a camera lens in a New York media studio. Now he has met and exceeded the precondition set forth by the RNC to get onto the first debate stage in the GOP primary election.

June’s schedule has Vivek doing town hall meetings regarding parental rights, a Meet & Greet at the Veteran’s Freedom Center in Dubuque, and Pints & Politics with Scott Country Republican Party. In addition, he will speak at Senator Joni Ernst’s Annual Roast & Ride 2023.

Are Debates Important?

But of course, Politico has their article out about the candidates who made it in, those who are in the bubble, and the ones sweating it out.

Vivek Ramaswamy: Ramaswamy has hit at least 1 percent in the last eight polls listed by RealClearPolitics (and 17 of the last 18). Despite the fact he’s self-funding much of his campaign, Ramaswamy has said he’s reached the donor threshold — an effort bolstered by solicitations for $1 donations seeking to build his list and check this qualification box, even if it has little impact on his coffers. Ramaswamy said in a statement Saturday that he has reached some 43,000 donors and crossed the debate threshold in May, noting “the debates are a crucial step for the GOP to define the agenda.”

Everyone is waiting to see if Trump will even participate in the debates. Will he or won’t he? And will it matter? He has already done two town halls, one on CNN, where liberals cried a lot, and I only recently found out he did one on Fox News too. Huh, who knew. But in case you missed it, Victory Girl Kim wrote about Trump’s slogfest on CNN.

Of course, all eyes are on Trump and DeSantis. And it may be irrelevant that Trump won’t participate in the primary debates, he was a former President, and name recognization alone can keep him afloat. The first three years of his Presidency were fabulous, and he did help make America great again. I will testify to that all day long. But then January 2020 came upon us all. You can argue all day long that the pandemic itself was not his fault, and it wasn’t, but the handling of it, well, hindsight is 2020. Dr. Fauci and his crew are entirely to blame. No doubt about that.

If he participates in the debate, Ron DeSantis probably will have a lot to say about that.

It is hard to move on from the wrath of destruction the pandemic left in its wake. But we must. Hopefully, everyone will be curious about what the first Republican primary debate will bring. Will you be watching? And do you think the debates are relevant in today’s world?

Feature Image: Cage Skidmore/Flickr/CC by-SA 2.0