KDSN RADIO News
GOP candidate Perry Johnson said August debate criteria 'ridiculous'
A presidential candidate who's campaigning in Iowa is blasting the rules that could prevent him from being in the first televised debate for G-O-P candidates. Perry Johnson is a Michigan businessman who's sending his book -- Two Cents to Save America -- to thousands of likely Iowa Caucus goers.
“I think it's ridiculous that they put a requirement on that you have to get 40,000 donors to try to get you off the debate stage, but I'm going to get on that stage anyway because I believe that I can still do it,” Johnson said. “I'm just going to ask for two cents because that's all I want is 40,000 donors, two cents apiece.” In 2022, Johnson launched a campaign for governor in Michigan, but Michigan election officials ruled over 94 hundred signatures on his nominating petitions were invalid and he did not have enough signatures left to get his name on the primary ballot. Courts in Michigan and a federal judge denied Johnson's appeal of that decision. Johnson said the qualifying rules for the first debate among G-O-P presidential candidates in August show Washington hates him.
“I am the outsider of outsiders,” Johnson said. “In fact, imagine somebody coming to you and telling you they're going to take their money away and their power away and that's what I have and that's why they put this ridiculous requirement of 40,000 donors.” Johnson has never held elected office. He has written several books and earned his fortune after founding a company that certifies if businesses are meeting industrial quality standards. Johnson launched his presidential campaign this spring, after airing a campaign-style ad in Iowa during the Super Bowl. He has stops in Council Bluffs, Denison, and Harlan on Tuesday.
(Photo Courtesy of The Gazette)
