Francis Suarez: If you don’t make the debate, drop out

DES MOINES — Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has a message to fellow presidential candidates: If you don’t make the debate stage, drop out.

Even if that means him.

“I agree that if you can’t meet the minimum thresholds, you shouldn’t be trying to take the time involved away from being productive,” Suarez, who has yet to qualify for the first Republican debate, said at the Iowa State Fair on Friday.

In response to a question from a reporter, Suarez agreed that if a candidate didn’t meet the minimum requirements to qualify for the debate, then the candidate should drop out.

Suarez, who has met the donor threshold but hasn’t gotten the polling numbers required to qualify, said the polling requirements are unfair for largely unknown candidates.

In order to make the debate, candidates must hit 1 percent in three RNC-sanctioned national polls, or they could hit that mark in two national polls combined with two (not one) state-specific polls. Suarez has hit 1 percent in one state poll.

Still, Suarez said he's confident he’ll make the debate stage on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee.

Suarez met the 40,000 donor threshold in early August. The Miami mayor was one of the few candidates to offer gift cards in exchange for donations.

The polling threshold has proved more difficult for him.

“I’m running against [people] who have been national figures for years. I’ve been a national figure for 60 days,” Suarez said. “So, fortunately for me, you’re sort of new so you have a different threshold, a different timeframe and we’re going to have to compete at the same level.”