Some supporters of former President Donald Trump are concerned that GOP rule changes in a pair of key states may hurt his bid to become the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nominee.
The changes also could help his second-place challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, gain ground, Mr. Trump’s allies allege.
But Republican leaders in the two states, California and Florida, deny ulterior motives.
In interviews with The Epoch Times, they provided justifications for the changes. They also opined that controversies, which erupted recently, are overblown.
Still, some critics remain skeptical of the explanations offered, and they say they are remaining vigilant because of what happened at the 2016 Republican National Convention. “Never Trumpers” tried, but failed, to change a rule “binding” votes of delegates from states where Mr. Trump won the primary election.
Challenges Stack Up
Now, as Mr. Trump strives to become the GOP’s nominee for the third time, he is the frontrunner thus far. But this time, he faces additional obstacles. Mr. Trump is trying to fend off more than a dozen Republican challengers, fighting two unprecedented criminal cases, and seeking to unseat Biden.In light of the challenges stacked against the former president, Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of Mr. Trump, railed against the rule changes.
“You look at what he’s dealing with. He doesn’t have time for this minutia,” Mr. Bannon said during a July 7 episode of the “Bannon’s War Room” podcast. But Mr. Bannon said what happens with the rules is “very important.”
In California, a proposed amendment to the state party’s bylaws would change the way the state’s delegates are assigned to candidates at the GOP’s national convention in July 2024.
If the amendment is approved, the state would change from a “winner-take-all” system to a “proportional” one. That method calls for delegates to be awarded to candidates based on the percentages of primary votes cast for the top vote-getters.
Concerns Cause Stir
Outspoken Trump supporter Laura Loomer brought concerns to light about these rule changes in a series of Twitter posts.Then Mr. Bannon invited Ms. Loomer to discuss the changes on his podcast. During that July 7 episode, she told Mr. Bannon that the former president’s adversaries are “trying to use the 2016 ‘playbook’ as a repeat—to undermine the 2024 election, steal delegates from Donald Trump and steal the nomination through last-minute rules changes.”
In response to Ms. Loomer’s statements, many online commenters expressed disgust with the rule revisions.
But Republican party leaders from both California and Florida dismissed any suggestion that the changes were motivated by anti-Trump bias.
In a July 11 email interview with The Epoch Times, California GOP (CAGOP) Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director Bryan Watkins said: “These allegations are dead wrong, and it’s a shame that the allegations were fueled by so much misinformation online.
Winner Take All—Or Not?
A Twitter post from Ms. Loomer had stoked concerns about California’s proposed rule change early on July 4.Without naming Loomer or other detractors, Ms. Dhillon’s tweet said: “I see there is some fake news being spread about changes to @CAGOP bylaws.”
Factors outside the CAGOP’s control triggered the change, Ms. Dhillon and others said.
“The Democrat governor changed the primary [election] date” from June to March, Ms. Dhillon wrote. That shift in the primary’s date activated a Republican National Committee (RNC) requirement.
The rule is apparently designed to prevent too many states from shifting their primaries to earlier dates. As more states set early primaries, the greater the chances that the race will be decided more quickly. If one candidate emerges too soon as the clear winner, later primaries in other states become largely moot.
California Carries Clout
Assuming compliance with the rules, California would be entitled to send an estimated 169 delegates to the July 2024 RNC convention, more than any other U.S. state, according to Ballotpedia.Therefore, Mr. Watkins told The Epoch Times, the proposed amendment to the CAGOP’s bylaws “would not only put us in compliance with RNC rules ... but it also creates a level playing field for candidates coming to our state and making their case to Republican voters.”
Mr. Watkins added: “If the bylaws do not change, California Republicans will lose half our delegates, no longer have the most of any state in the nation, diminish California’s role in helping to pick the Republican Party’s nominee and belittle the voices of California Republican voters. It’s as simple as that.”
California and at least 11 other states will hold their Republican primaries on March 5, 2024.
That was the first year that the California primary shifted from June to March. But, the CAGOP tweet said, “the rules we had in 2020 had a sunset clause,” which permitted their use solely for that year’s primary.
The CAGOP points out that the 2020 rules expired more than two years ago.
Ms. Loomer and others were skeptical of the CAGOP’s explanations.
Although Ms. Loomer accused the CAGOP of acting secretively, Mr. Watkins said that the party was following its standard procedure for introducing amendments to bylaws.
Intent Versus Result
Regardless of the impetus for the proposed California change, it stands to benefit Mr. DeSantis, pollster Richard Baris told “Human Events” podcaster Jack Posobiec on July 5.Months ago, Mr. DeSantis appeared to have plenty of allies in California and a decent chance of beating Trump there, Mr. Baris said. But based on current polling, “the bottom line is that Trump is expected to sweep almost every state on March 5,” including California, Mr. Baris said.
Distributing delegates proportionally could help keep Mr. DeSantis’ candidacy alive past that date, Mr. Baris said.
“I can’t speak to the motivations here ... I’m just telling you what the impact is. And if you are someone who supports DeSantis, you like this rule change, without a doubt,” Mr. Baris said.
The Epoch Times sought comment from DeSantis campaign spokesman Bryan Griffin but received no reply before publication time.
Even if the rule change benefits Mr. DeSantis, Mr. Trump’s advocates remain confident that he will leap over any additional hurdles it creates for him.
Florida GOP Chair Responds
As for the Florida rule change, Ms. Loomer told Mr. Bannon that it shows “the Florida GOP is rigging this election for Ron DeSantis.”Florida’s Republican chairman Christian Ziegler, in an interview with The Epoch Times on July 11, cited multiple reasons to dispute that claim.
He pointed to his own past hard work for Mr. Trump as well as for Mr. DeSantis.
“It’s hard to find anyone who worked for both men as aggressively in the state of Florida as I did,” Mr. Ziegler said.
He also said his job is to remain neutral until a nominee is selected at the national convention.
The state party’s executive board, which has about 40 members, discussed the loyalty pledge in March and April, then voted to approve it in May. No voices were raised against it, Mr. Ziegler said.
Supporters of the pledge included people who back Mr. Trump’s candidacy, he said, and some people have interpreted the pledge as an indicator of Mr. Trump’s influence over the party in Florida.
However, Ms. Loomer and others characterized the loyalty pledge as an attempt to undermine Mr. Trump or back him into a corner. Ever since his initial presidential run began in 2015, Mr. Trump has avoided promising to support the GOP’s eventual nominee if he were to lose.
Yet Mr. Ziegler said the loyalty pledge issue surfaced in response to rumblings that explicitly anti-Trump candidates, such as former GOP congress members Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger, might seek the party’s nomination.
No Pledge, No Debate
Earlier this year, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel declared that all GOP presidential candidates must pledge loyalty to the winning nominee, or be denied the chance to participate in televised Republican candidate debates.The first GOP debate is set for Aug. 23 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the RNC convention will be held next year.
Mr. Trump has so far refused to take the pledge. He says he doesn’t want to participate anyhow. As the runaway leader in polling so far, Mr. Trump has said he feels he has nothing to gain by participating with long-shot challengers.
Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee has decided against holding presidential debates, thus shielding Mr. Biden from his challengers’ direct attacks.
The pledge, however, wasn’t a huge priority for him.
Rather, a major goal was ensuring that the Florida primary remained under the winner-take-all delegate system.
The nomination process may be effectively decided by “Super Tuesday,” on March 5, he said. But if it’s not, Florida’s primary, set for March 19, 2024, “will pack the biggest punch,” Mr. Ziegler said.
Eye on November Prize
The Sunshine State is entitled to bring 125 delegates to the national party convention, the nation’s third-highest Republican delegation count. Texas comes in second place with 162 delegates, just seven fewer delegates than first-place California.“The important thing is to ensure whoever wins the primary wins the general election,” Mr. Ziegler said.
“Contested primaries are part of the process,” he said, “but we must always remember that the Democrats are the true threat to the America we love and we must be unified to defeat every single one of them.”
Helping the frontrunner consolidate support enables the party to focus sooner on defeating the opposing party in the November general election, Mr. Ziegler said.
Although Mr. Biden has faced increasing scrutiny for his family’s foreign business dealings and his public episodes of apparent forgetfulness, he is far outdistancing his nearest Democrat rival.
Mr. Biden was beating environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by about 50 percentage points, according to the RealClear Politics average of opinion polls. Mr. Trump is ahead of Mr. DeSantis by about 32 percent; all other Republican contenders are registering in the single digits.
Both Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Trump are statistically tied in head-to-head matchups against Mr. Biden, stoking conservative concerns that neither of them can beat Mr. Biden in the Nov. 5, 2024, presidential election.
Chairman Defends Wife
Ms. Loomer also accused Mr. Ziegler of pro-DeSantis bias, pointing to statements he’d made in support of Mr. DeSantis. She also noted that Mr. DeSantis had appointed Mr. Ziegler’s wife, Bridget Ziegler, to a new board overseeing Disney World.But Mr. Ziegler countered that he campaigned door-to-door for Mr. Trump in 43 of Florida’s 67 counties in 2020. Mr. Ziegler said he made pro-DeSantis statements later, in 2021 and 2022, as part of Mr. DeSantis’s run for reelection as governor.
Mr. Ziegler defended his wife’s appointment to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. Before Mr. DeSantis appointed her to that position, Mrs. Ziegler served on the Sarasota County School Board since 2014.
She has more experience in governmental oversight than her fellow commissioners, who are all lawyers, Mr. Ziegler said.
The position is unpaid and carries no perks with it—not even free admission to Disney World, he said, adding, “The only thing it’s gotten her is being named in a federal lawsuit.”
For The Good of The Party
In addition, Mr. Ziegler said his wife had consulted recently with the Trump campaign on educational policy. And at an event Mrs. Ziegler organized in January, she had another Republican candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, as the keynote speaker.In response to Ms. Loomer’s criticism of a donation Mr. DeSantis’s campaign had made to Mrs. Ziegler’s reelection campaign, Mr. Ziegler pointed out that Mr. DeSantis donated the identical amount, $1,000, the maximum allowed, to the campaigns of about 30 conservative school board candidates around the state.
“We’re simple people,” he said. “I’m a [Republican] party guy; she’s an education person. We just want to have influence on that.”
As chairman, Mr. Ziegler said he needs to pull the party together behind the nominee, no matter who wins.
“The candidates come and go,” Mr. Ziegler said. “The party is always here. It’s what I’m passionate about.”
