‘Ensure Maximum Unity’: Florida GOP Will Enforce Loyalty Pledge for Candidates to Make Primary Ballot

• The Florida GOP is requiring all 2024 Republican presidential candidates to sign a pledge to support the eventual party nominee in order to make the state’s crucial primary ballot in March.
• The state’s new loyalty pledge mirrors “word-for-word” that of the Republican National Committee’s debate requirement language, and will “ensure maximum unity” in the party, Christian Ziegler, Florida GOP chairman, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
• “Contested primaries are part of the process, 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,” Ziegler told the DCNF.

The Florida Republican Party will require all 2024 GOP presidential candidates to sign a loyalty pledge, mirroring the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) debate criteria language, in order to make the state’s primary ballot in March, the Daily Caller News Foundation confirmed Thursday.

The RNC is requiring all presidential hopefuls to pledge to endorse the eventual party nominee in 2024 to make the debate stage in August, which has caused some backlash from Republican contenders. The Florida GOP will require the contenders to do the same to “ensure maximum unity,” which includes the three candidates in the race from Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis, former President Donald Trump and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez — to take the pledge in order to get on the state’s primary ballot, Christian Ziegler, Florida GOP chairman, told the DCNF.

“The pledge — which is the word-for-word the same language as the RNC pledge — was requested and passed by our members to ensure maximum unity heading into the General Election,” Ziegler told the DCNF. “The days of outlier party grifters — such as Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — using Republican Party resources to secure a title and then weaponize that title against our own team must end. Contested primaries are part of the process, 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.”

Neither campaigns for Trump or Suarez immediately responded to the DCNF’s requests for comment, asking whether the candidates will sign their state’s loyalty pledge, and DeSantis’ campaign pointed the DCNF toward a previous statement the governor made regarding the RNC’s requirement.

“You run this process, you compete, and you respect the outcome of the process. And I’ve always said that. And so that’s what I said before. That’s what I’ll do,” DeSantis said on June 22 at an event in South Carolina. “I think I’m going to be the nominee. But no matter what happens, I’m going to work to beat Joe Biden. That’s what you have to do.”

It’s not clear whether Trump will sign the RNC’s loyalty pledge, as he told Hugh Hewitt in February “it would have to depend on who the nominee was.” The former president, who has also suggested he might skip the first two RNC debates, initially pledged to support the eventual nominee in 2015, but later changed his tune.

Suarez previously indicated he will sign the RNC’s loyalty pledge to make the debate stage.

“I think every single Republican candidate who wants to be on the debate stage has to pledge to support the nominee, and I will do that as well,” Suarez told ABC News on June 15.

Jaime Miller, former executive director of the Florida Republican Party, told the DCNF he doesn’t think the loyalty pledge to get on the state’s ballot is a “crazy requirement.” Miller believes all three of Florida’s presidential candidates should and will sign the pledge, especially considering how important the state is in determining the Republican nominee, but the question remains whether they’ll eventually honor it.

“Stand up in front of people and sign it and say ‘I’m committed. I’m committed to being on the ballot and winning Florida,’” Miller argued of all candidates. “‘And I challenge every other Republican [candidate] to follow my lead, and I look forward to their support once I’m the nominee.’”

Miller noted having a requirement like this is “a big deal” considering Florida will likely play an important role in deciding the party nominee, and has almost the same amount of delegates than all of the four early primary states combined.

“Florida for a long time has been a barometer for the country, and it also has picked the GOP nominee for I don’t know how many cycles now, but it’s been quite a few,” said Miller. “[Candidates] should honor the opportunity that the Florida Republican Party is giving them to win all of their delegates —  Like it’s a big deal. So the Florida Republican Party is giving each one of these candidates a huge opportunity, and that’s the way they should look at it.”

Florida’s primary is on March 19, 2024, and the state will have 125 delegates, with Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina estimated to have 40, 22, 26 and 50, respectively, according to The Green Papers delegate summary.

Ben Torpey, a Republican political consultant from Florida, argued the three will “have to” sign the pledge if they want to make it on the ballot and be the party nominee, he told the DCNF. Torpey believes the Florida GOP might’ve made the move to further incentivize candidates to sign the RNC’S pledge and participate in the debate.

“I think most Republicans at the end of the day, regardless of what they say during the primary … I think most folks inherently, they’re going to end up voting Republican if they vote in the presidential election,” said Torpey. “So I do think it makes the party stronger to endorse whoever it is, no matter what kind of complications or fights you had during the primary.”

Several Republican hopefuls have criticized the RNC’s loyalty pledge requirement, including former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Texas Rep. Will Hurd. Hutchinson asked the committee to amend the pledge’s language, citing concerns over potentially having to support a convicted felon if the former president becomes the nominee. Christie slammed the loyalty requirement for being a “useless idea.” Hurd insists he won’t pledge to endorse the eventual nominee, and isn’t willing to lie “to the American people for the sake of a microphone.”