Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has about 5,000 of the 40,000 donors needed to reach the debate stage in August, the GOP presidential candidate said Thursday.

“We’re about 5,000, so we got more work to do. We got time to do it,” Hutchinson told radio host Hugh Hewitt when pressed about his donor numbers.

Hutchinson has previously criticized the Republican National Committee’s requirements for candidates to qualify for debates: garnering donations from at least 40,000 national contributors and polling consistently above 1 percent in three national polls or two national polls and a state poll. A mild-mannered candidate, the former governor explained that it might take “explosive rhetoric” that “gets people excited” or millions of dollars to garner those donors.