In addition to the traditional “and I approve this message,” presidential-campaign ads might have to end with “no purchase necessary, void where prohibited.”

Vivek Ramaswamy is running a multi-level marketing scheme; Doug Burgum is giving away $20 gift cards; and now, Francis Suarez is giving away a chance at free college if you donate to his campaign. The SOS America PAC, which supports Suarez, tweeted, “Give $1 now to support @FrancisSuarez for President for your chance to win a FREE YEAR OF COLLEGE!”

If you’re wondering who Suarez is, that’s probably part of the reason his PAC is running a college-tuition raffle. He’s the mayor of Miami, actually a pretty good one, and one of the only Republican mayors of a major U.S. city. Why he’s running for president is anyone’s guess; he barely registers in primary polls, and most Americans do not know who he is. The biggest story of his campaign so far is that Hugh Hewitt stumped him with a question about the Uyghurs.

There’s a decent case to be made that an effective conservative mayor of a big city should be president, in much the same way that there’s a decent case to be made that an effective conservative governor such as Burgum should be president. (Ramaswamy’s campaign, on the other hand, has never been serious.) That’s why it’s all the more dispiriting to see these successful state and local politicians resort to gimmicks in their campaigns for national office.

But they are responding to incentives. The RNC said that to qualify for the primary debates, candidates need to prove that they have 40,000 unique donors. For the bigger campaigns, that’s no problem, but for the smaller ones, it could be a barrier. Lesser-known candidates could try to pitch their vision for America to small-dollar donors — or they could promise free stuff. Free stuff is easier to sell.

These schemes are most likely legal. They’re just extremely embarrassing. As I noted in a piece on Tuesday, these candidates aren’t even buying votes. They’re buying donors so that maybe they can have a chance to buy votes. We’re months away from the first primary elections, and some of these campaigns won’t even make it that far.

When the incentives are structured in such a way that successful conservative politicians feel the need to resort to stupid gimmicks when running for president, it’s yet another sign that something is deeply wrong with our primary-election system.