Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are in, but presidential candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein will need to get to 15 percent in 5 national polls by mid-September. Today, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that the polls to be used are ABC News-Washington Post, CBS News-New York Times, CNN-Opinion Research Corporation, Fox News, and NBC News-Wall Street Journal.
If Johnson, the Libertarian candidate or Stein, the Green party candidate is invited to the first presidential debate, on Sept. 26, their running mate will be invited to the vice presidential debate, on Oct. 4. As of now, according to RealClearPolitics, Johnson is averaging 8.4 percent in a 4-way race while Stein is at 3 percent.
Over the weekend, Johnson told Fox News’s Greg Gutfeld the chance of getting into the debates is “better than 50 percent.” That interview also included nose picking and snoozing on camera.
The CPD also requires that any candidate is on enough state ballots to have a mathematical chance of securing at least 270 electoral votes, the amount needed to win the presidency.