Support for Green Party candidate Jill Stein has ranged between 2 percent and 4 percent. Johnson or Stein could qualify for the next debates if their polling numbers improve enough to hit 15 percent.
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“The CPD may have excluded us from the first debate, but we can still get on the stage in October”, he said in an email to supporters and reporters.
Johnson’s running mate, former MA governor Bill Weld, will not take part in the vice-presidential debate, which will be contested by Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Mike Pence at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia on 4 October. A recent poll conducted by USA TODAY from Aug 24-29 concluded that 76 percent of Americans believe a third candidate should be included in the Presidential debates.
The Green Party announced it would hold an event outside Hofstra University the evening of the presidential debate.
Besides that requirement, a candidate must have constitutional eligibility like being at least 35 years of age and a natural born citizen of the U.S.
In a statement, Johnson blasted the commission as a “private organization created 30 years ago by the Republican and Democratic parties for the clear objective of taking control of the only nationally-televised presidential debates voters will see”.
It would give voters a chance to hear from candidates other than Trump and Clinton who, to be frank, have done little to inspire the electorate. The debate would have offered Johnson and Stein the largest audiences of their campaigns. But neither met the threshold of having 15 percent of support in national polls.
That makes the September 26 debate the first head-to-head showdown between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Johnson said the decision did not surprise him, and added that the commission is a tool of the major parties.
According to the CBS News/New York Times poll, on Thursday Johnson was polling about 8 percent and Stein about 4 percent.
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“We will be at the debate to insist that Americans not only have a right to vote, but we have a right to know who we can vote for”, she said. “I think he’s been treated very unfairly”.
