$20 gift cards and $1 books: GOP primary candidates test novel ways to raise money as they scramble for a spot on next month’s debate stage

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is offering $20 gift cards to people who donate at least $1 to his presidential campaign. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has promised grassroots fundraisers a 10% cut of the money they bring into his campaign. Other candidates are just pleading for $1 donations or offering campaign swag at a steep discount.

The crowded field of 2024 Republican presidential candidates is under intense pressure to demonstrate they can raise money from a broad slice of Americans, especially ahead of the party’s August 23 debate. To qualify for the debate stage in Milwaukee, candidates must meet both polling thresholds and a fundraising floor: At least 40,000 unique donors, including at least 200 contributions from 20 states.

The demand for cash has prompted some novel fundraising strategies – and raised questions about whether some approaches run afoul of federal campaign finance laws.

“The reality is that raising money takes a lot of money, and it distorts the process when you care more about the number of donors and the geographic distribution than about the amount of money” the campaign receives, said Richard Hasen, an expert on election law at UCLA’s law school.

“I certainly understand the incentive and rationale for trying these alternative methods.”

But Hasen and other campaign-finance experts have raised questions about the legality of the approach advanced by Burgum, a former software executive who is plowing his personal wealth into his long-shot bid for the GOP nomination.

Burgum is offering $20 so-called “Biden economic relief cards” in the form of Visa or Mastercard gift cards to 50,000 donors. One solicitation Tuesday described it as a “better deal than anything you are seeing during Amazon Prime Day.” An online newsletter, FWIW, first reported the Burgum gift-card plan.

The campaign says…