Kudos to Governor Ron and the DeSantis campaign for pushing back on the Ronna National Committee (RNC). The Party tried to prevent presidential candidates from participating in an upcoming round table event in Iowa. The Party said it was a debate, and if they attended, they could be excluded from their debates.
Care of RedState.
“It has come to the attention of the RNC Counsel’s Office that several Republican presidential candidates have been invited to participate in an open-press event in Iowa in November at which they would ‘gather around the table to have a moderated, friendly, and open discussion about the issues.’ In other words, a debate,” the RNC counsel’s office said in a letter obtained by CNN.
“Accordingly, please be advised that any Republican presidential candidate who participates in this or other similar events will be deemed to have violated this pledge and will be disqualified from taking part in any future RNC-sanctioned presidential primary debates,” the office said.
DeSantis said, isn’t that cute, but I’m going.
.@RonDeSantis tells @wrmcduff he will attend the Family Leader Thanksgiving Forum in Iowa despite RNC warnings:
“I think it’s an important part of this process. It’s been a part of this process for a long time. There’s no way that should cause the RNC to penalize any candidate.” pic.twitter.com/kzwSbh2Fd6
— Kit Maher (@KitMaherCNN) November 11, 2023
That doesn’t leave the RNC with a lot of wiggle room. Their debates are already losing their audience. VermontGrok’s Rob Roper dropped a piece yesterday suggesting that folks like DeSantis and Haley might be better off if they stopped participating in those. Trump has fared well by refusing to add his ring to that circus. So, it has to be on people’s minds.
What exactly are these Republican Debates doing for me polling-wise?
Not a lot. I haven’t seen anyone move much after these debates except perhaps Vivek, but each debate brings a new version of him, so voters may not know which Ramaswamy they’ll be getting.
And the RNC hasn’t exactly gone out of its way to consistently ensure they have moderators that Republican voters might trust – especially primary voters, who are more tuned in than most of the electorate.
Good on DeSantis for standing up and saying this isn’t a debate and getting the RNC to back down. Now he needs to do something about his Nikki Haley problem, or he’ll be the defacto third-place candidate.