Hours after KTracy.com asked our readers to donate to Mike Pence's Presidential Campaign in order to get him on the debate stage, the campaign announced that Pence met the critical threshold of 40,000 individual donors as required by the RNC. With 40,000 donors and his current position in the polls, Mike Pence will be qualified for the first debate.

The Pence campaign also announced that they were the first to submit the required records to the RNC for the verification process, a surprising fact since seven candidates claim to have met the threshold before Pence. It's enough to make you wonder if perhaps some claimed to have met the 40,000 donor threshold but are going to submit the records last minute to put the RNC in an awkward spot leading up to the debate.

The first Republican debate will be held on August 23 in Milwaukee; which should work well for Pence as his home is in nearby Indiana and he is spending a lot of time in nearby Iowa trying to rally support for the first Caucuses.

Donald Trump has not indicated whether he will be attending, but Republicans picking a candidate shouldn't be too concerned about that. While many conservatives hope he's not there so we can get more time with the actual electable candidates, it's difficult to imagine Donald Trump not taking an opportunity to be on live television. Regardless of Trump's appearance or lack thereof, the real question going into the night for conservatives and Team Pence particularly will be how Mike Pence's conservative demeanor plays against the more flamboyant rhetoric of Ron DeSantis (aka Donald Lite) and the more energetic Tim Scott.

Can Mike Pence excite us with Christian values and a cool head?

We'll find out on August 23rd.