Four Republican backbencher candidates who this week failed to qualify for the GOP’s first 2024 presidential debate have criticized the Republican National Committee for its rules, with multiple contenders they call “manipulated.”
“This is BS,” lamented conservative radio host Larry Elder in a video he shared online. “I think it’s designed to ensure that [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis is the nominee — everyone except Donald Trump.”
Elder, who made a failed attempt to impeach California Governor Gavin Newsom, said he planned to file an emergency lawsuit to stop the debate. Businessman Perry Johnson, another Republican candidate, also said he intends to do so to take legal action against the RNC.
The primetime debate is scheduled for Wednesday in Milwaukee and will be broadcast on Fox News.
Radio host Larry Elder is among the candidates who failed to qualify for the first Republican presidential debate of 2024.
The RNC announced in June that to be eligible for the debate, each candidate had to reach at least 40,000 unique donors and register at least 1% in three national polls, or 1% in two national polls and 1% in one early state poll . .
Few candidates struggled to reach the donor threshold. Some of them even used creative and eyebrow raising schemes to achieve their goal. For example, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum offered $20 gift cards to those who donated at least $1 to his campaign, a luxury available to a wealthy self-funding candidate.
But the vote count proved a more difficult task for candidates with little name recognition in a Trump-dominated race. Elder complained that the RNC was not counting polls from Rasmussen, a Trump-friendly polling station, while former Representative Will Hurd of Texas protested the committee’s decision not to include polls questioning independents and Democrats willing to take a to vote Republican.
“The lack of transparency and confusion surrounding the RNC’s debate requirements is contrary to the democratic process. The American people deserve better’ Hurd said in a statement Tuesday.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez also failed to pass the cut. Suarez had previously named candidates who will not make it to the debate stage must drop out of the race – including himself.
“I run against [people] who have been national figures for many years. I’ve been a national figure for 60 days,” Suarez said earlier this month. “So luckily for me you’re kind of new, so you have a different threshold, a different time frame and we’re going to have to compete on the same level.”
The cost of not having the debate for backbencher candidates is extremely high. They’re already struggling to get attention, and now they have zero chance of a breakthrough moment on stage.
While Trump is skipping the debate — and has said he will also sit out all future GOP debates — eight of his Republican rivals will compete for second place at the Milwaukee event.
They include: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, Senator Tim Scott (SC), former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, former Governor of New York Jersey Chris Christie and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson.
