Campaign

DeSantis signs RNC loyalty pledge ahead of first primary debate

by Julia Manchester - 08/09/23 6:08 PM ET

FILE – Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a fundraising event for U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, Aug. 6, 2023, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) loyalty pledge ahead of the first GOP primary debate in Milwaukee later this month.

The pledge states that the candidate will support the eventual nominee of the party’s primary and that the candidate will not participate in any debate the RNC has not sanctioned. The pledge is a part of the criteria Republican candidates must meet to qualify for the first presidential primary debate set for Aug. 23.

According to DeSantis’s campaign, the pledge will not impact DeSantis’s recent agreement to participate in a debate moderated by Fox News’s Sean Hannity against Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

DeSantis joins businessman Vivek Ramaswamy as the only other Republican candidate to have both met the other qualifications for the first debate and signed the pledge.

The pledge has proven to be a sore spot for some of the other 2024 Republican contenders. Former Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) told CNN in June that he would not sign the pledge, noting the scenario in which former President Trump becomes the nominee.

“I won’t be signing any kind of pledges, and I don’t think that parties should be trying to rig who should be on a debate stage,” Hurd told the network.

“I am not in the business of lying to the American people in order to get a microphone, and I’m not going to support Donald Trump,” he continued. “And so I can’t honestly say I’m going to sign something even if he may or may not be the nominee.”

Meanwhile, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) called the pledge “a useless idea” last month.

“I’m going to take the pledge just as seriously as Donald Trump took it in 2016,” he told CNN.

“As you’ll remember, [former White House chief of staff] Reince Priebus had to go up to Trump Tower to get him to sign it, to ask him to do so,” he continued. “He did, and then we went to a subsequent debate, and we were all asked if we would reaffirm our support of whoever the nominee was going to be by raising our hand. There were 10 of us on the stage, nine of us raised our hands. The one who didn’t was Donald Trump.”