Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said on Sunday that he has defied the odds and qualified for the first GOP presidential primary debate. During a surprise appearance on CNN‘s State of the Union on Sunday, Hutchinson said he had met the polling requirement and submitted 42,000 individual donors, just over the 40,000 minimum. “The debate is going to be exciting and very important,” he told moderator Kasie Hunt. “As I’ve been in Iowa, people are waiting to make decisions. That debate will be an important part of how they factor in who’s going to be our next nominee.” As for the debate’s other requirement—a signed pledge agreeing to support whoever the eventual Republican nominee is—Hutchinson said he would agree to it but was “confident that Donald Trump is not going to be the nominee of the party.” Hutchinson hadn’t reached the halfway mark for donors less than two weeks ago, and he still currently averages at less than 1 percent nationally.
