Mike Pence has met the requirements for the first Republican presidential debate. He finally reached the donor threshold. His campaign confirmed the news late Monday.

Pence capitalized on Trump’s indictment and allegations that Trump tried to pressure Pence to reject the 2020 election results. There must have been a level of humiliation felt by Pence and his campaign as the former vice president failed to get the necessary donor level to qualify for the debate. His campaigned reached the polling requirement but had difficulty getting 40,000 unique donations. Pence is a former congressman, governor, and vice president and he only now is reaching 40,000 people willing to contribute to his campaign. Ouch. Even a donation as small as $1 qualifies as a contribution.

Pence is an old-school Establishment kind of Republican politician. He’s not a populist but he is a solid conservative. He usually comes off as mild-mannered and that kind of personality doesn’t always garner a lot of attention from voters, especially in a presidential primary when all the candidates are throwing as much red meat to voters as possible. Standing out in a crowd of candidates isn’t so easy when the politics are mostly all the same.

The polling requirement for the first debate is to receive at least one percent support in three polls, which includes two national ones. He reached that, which indicates he has some support, just not enough to be a top-tier contender, at least not yet. He’s in the middle of the pack, though he has risen in the latest polls. The latest poll out at Real Clear Politics today is Emerson. It is a state poll of Arizona Republican voters. It shows Pence in a three-way tie with Nikki Haley and Tim Scott. All are at 3%. Trump is ahead of the field of candidates by 47% in that poll.

In the aftermath of Trump’s last indictment, Pence received more than 7400 donations. The campaign sells merchandise with the phrase “Too Honest”, something Trump allegedly said of Pence when Pence refused to block the certification off the election results.

Pence, who has a squeaky clean reputation in politics, was the target of Trump’s wrath Saturday. Pence, to his credit, has been speaking up for himself. He is defending his refusal to reject the election results. Trump lashed out on Truth Social by calling Pence “delusional” and “not a very good person.” Trump went on to say that Pence had “gone to the Dark Side.”

The first Republican debate will be on August 23 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The other Republican presidential candidates who have qualified to be on the stage that night are Trump, DeSantis, Haley, Scott, Christie, Ramaswamy, and Burgum.

According to FiveThirtyEight, Pence’s polling average in national polls as of August 3 is 4.9%. Trump is leading with 53.3% of the vote. DeSantis is in second place with 14.3% an Ramaswamy is at 6.7%

Pence has only been in the race since June but he struggles to gain traction. He has recently landed on the strategy of going harder after Trump. In a field of candidates who refuse to talk smack about Trump, except for Chris Christie and Will Hurd, a new level of boldness from Pence will get noticed. Pence says that Trump “was wrong then, and he’s wrong now” about claiming he could reject the results.

Today the Pence campaign is goading Trump into participating in the first primary debate.

“Mike Pence made quick and easy work of the donor threshold, and he’s looking forward to a substantive debate about the issues important to the American people,” said Pence communications adviser Devin O’Malley. “Hopefully, former President Trump has the courage to show up.”

Trump has a new nickname for Pence – “Liddle Mike Pence.”

“WOW, it’s finally happened! Liddle’ Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

“I never told a newly emboldened (not based on his 2% poll numbers!) Pence to put me above the Constitution, or that Mike was ‘too honest,'” Trump added. This was a reference to a remark the former president is alleged to have told Pence after the then-vice president said he didn’t have the constitutional power to stop the votes from being certified during a January 1, 2021 meeting between the pair.

And, on it goes. Pence is the eighth Republican to qualify for the debate.