Republican presidential candidate Larry Elder announced he will sue the Republican National Committee after being excluded from the upcoming debate despite meeting the qualifications.
“I intend to sue the RNC to halt Wednesday’s presidential debate,” Elder wrote in a message on X on Aug. 22. “I said from the beginning that it appeared the rules of the game were rigged, little did we know just how rigged it is. For some reason, the establishment leaders at the RNC are afraid of having my voice on the debate stage.”
“Just as I had to fight to successfully be on the ballot in the California recall election, I will fight to be on that debate stage because I fully met all of the requirements to do so,” he added.
To take part in the first presidential debates, candidates were required to have donations of any amount from 40,000 individual donors and have support from 200 donors in 20 different states. Additionally, the candidate must be polling at 1% in either three national polls or one national poll and two polls from early-voting states. The RNC also required those who qualified to sign a loyalty pledge promising to support whoever becomes the party’s nominee.
Elder’s campaign says he has exceeded the 40,000 individual donors requirement and has support from 200 donors in at least 37 states. He signed the “Beat Biden” loyalty pledge and agreed to let the RNC review his campaign’s WinRed fundraising totals.
According to a statement from Elder, the RNC informed his campaign he would not be permitted to take part in the debate stage after receiving his completed qualification package. The RNC justified the decision by claiming that Rasmussen Polls have ties to former President Donald Trump.
Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, opted not to take part in the debate despite warnings from RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniels that skipping the event would be a “mistake.”
“Larry Elder has no knowledge about whether Donald Trump has ever worked with Rasmussen previously,” the Elder campaign said. “In fact, Rasmussen Polls is a reputable, nationally-recognized firm and one of only THREE polling firms who accurately predicted the outcome of the 2016 Presidential Election (along with the Trafalgar group.)”
Republican activist Kari Lake signaled her support for Elder, noting that multiple polls place him within the RNC’s required threshold.
“He has three polls showing him over 1% which would qualify him, but he’s been told that one of the polls may have been affiliated with Trump so they won’t accept it,” said Lake on X. “Larry is an important voice. He speaks eloquently about school choice and education freedom—more so than anybody I know. We need Larry Elder’s voice at the Republican debate.”
The RNC released a list of eight candidates who will appear on stage at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum for the Aug. 23 debate. The list includes Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott.
“The RNC is excited to showcase our diverse candidate field and the conservative vision to beat Joe Biden on the debate stage Wednesday night,” said McDaniel in a statement, per The New York Post.
The RNC Committee on Debates is set to meet in Milwaukee on Aug. 22 ahead of the debate.
“Are they even aware their leaders are keeping voices off the stage that qualified?” Elder wrote. “I’m calling for a discussion and a vote of the full committee on the rigged polling criteria set by the anti-conservative, anti-Trump RNC establishment.”
