Sign pledge or no debate, GOP tells 2024 hopefuls

NEW YORK — Republican presidential candidates will be blocked from the debate stage this summer if they do not sign a pledge to support the GOP’s ultimate presidential nominee, according to draft language set to be adopted when the Republican National Committee meets next week.

“After the primary, it is imperative to the health and growth of our Republican Party, as well as the country, that we all come together and unite behind our nominee to defeat Joe Biden and the Democrats,” RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said in a statement to The Associated Press when asked about the loyalty pledge.

As many as a dozen Republicans are expected to enter the 2024 presidential contest as the GOP braces for an all-out civil war in the months ahead.

Much of the party is eager to move past former President Donald Trump. But Republican leaders have few, if any, tools to control Trump given his popularity with the GOP’s most passionate voters.

Party leaders are hopeful that a loyalty pledge, while ultimately unenforceable, would generate some shared commitment to unity, albeit a fragile one, as the presidential primary season takes off.

A senior Trump aide could not say whether the former president would sign the pledge to support the eventual nominee but suggested privately that he plans to participate in the debates. Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung declined to answer the question directly as well.

“President Trump is the undisputed leader of the Republican Party and will be the nominee,” Cheung said.

Facing similar concerns in 2016, Trump signed a similar loyalty pledge that was not tied to debates, but he later reneged as the primary campaign became more contentious. At the very first Republican primary debate that year, Trump was the only candidate on stage who refused to commit to supporting the party’s eventual nominee unless it was him.

Trump shared in December an article on social media encouraging him to seek a third-party bid to punish the GOP should Republican primary voters select another presidential nominee in 2024.

Meanwhile, there is no such threat on the Democratic side.

Virtually every Democrat thought to have presidential aspirations has already promised to unite behind President Joe Biden, assuming the 78-year-old Democrat follows through on his plan to seek a second term.

The Republican loyalty pledge is among several provisions likely to be adopted as the RNC’s Temporary Standing Committee on Presidential Debates meets next week to determine the rules governing which candidates may participate in the GOP’s upcoming debate season — and which media networks will host the events.

The committee is considering between 10 and 12 debates to begin in late July at the Reagan Library in California or at the RNC’s summer meeting in Milwaukee, the host of the GOP’s next national convention.

Committee officials are sorting through proposals from as many as 18 media companies eager to host a debate. They include major television networks like CNN, MSNBC and Fox and lower-profile outlets like Newsmax, according to people directly involved in the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal discussions.

While the likes of CNN and NBC hosted Republican primary debates in 2016, Republican officials suggest it would be a mistake to assume they will be selected this time around given widespread disdain for the networks among the party’s base. Representatives from each network will pitch to the RNC in person next Wednesday and Thursday.

Meanwhile, the criteria for debate participants will almost certainly include a new donor threshold to demonstrate broad support among the party’s grassroots in addition to a polling threshold of either 1% or 2%.

While there are many moving pieces, GOP leaders are most concerned about the party’s ability to come together after what promises to be a divisive season.

Dave Bossie, a former Trump aide and current RNC member leading the debate committee, noted that the committee is modeling its 2024 loyalty pledge after the 2016 pledge.

“All Republicans can agree that Joe Biden has been a disaster for America,” Bossie said. “Therefore, it should be easy for every candidate to pledge unity toward defeating the radical Biden administration.”