TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump are finding the price to get to Florida’s 2024 primary ballot is rising.
All GOP candidates will have to swear their loyalty to the eventual Republican nominee to make the March 19 primary, a contest that could tip the scales of the crowded race since Florida’s contest is a win-win primary.
This is a significant change from 2015, when multiple candidates – including two from Florida – ran for president.
Florida’s Republican Party approved the change at its executive council meeting in mid-May and included the new provisions in an updated version of its bylaws that it filed with election officials. State but which has not been widely distributed.
The new oath, which includes a pledge to “support” the GOP nominee and requires a candidate to pledge not to run as an independent or third-party candidate, mirrors language adopted by the Republican National Committee for its first debate .
“We were trying to be consistent with what the debate demanded,” said Evan Power, vice chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, who said the campaigns were briefed on the changes. “I don’t think it will be a surprise.”
Florida Republicans’ switch comes amid a continued back-and-forth by some Republican presidential candidates over whether they would back the nominee, especially if it’s Trump, who remains mired in legal issues. Chris Christie called a loyalty pledge a “useless idea” and said it wasn’t needed before Trump arrived.
Last month, DeSantis dodged the question of whether he would ‘support’ Trump if he was the nominee, although at a later campaign event he added that candidates should ‘respect the outcome of the process’ . Trump himself has been hesitant to endorse the nominee, saying in a radio interview earlier this year that it would depend on who it was.
Neither the DeSantis nor Trump campaigns immediately responded to a request for comment Wednesday.
Besides the governor and former president, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is also a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination.
Candidates wishing to participate in the primary vote have until November 22 to submit a signed and notarized promise. The party is required to submit the final list of candidates to state election officials by Nov. 30.
Florida Republicans also made other changes to the requirements to be on the primary ballot, including adding additional requirements designed to entice GOP candidates to attend the party’s “Florida Freedom Summit” scheduled for early November.
Candidates who agree to attend the summit only have to pay a $25,000 qualifying fee to make the March 19 primary while those who skip the party will have to pay $100,000. A candidate can avoid paying the fee if he collects signatures from Florida Republicans to vote – but that’s gone from a total of 3,375 signatures in 2015 to a total of 56,000 now.
“The goal is to get people to the top,” Florida Republican Party Chairman Christian Ziegler said in a phone interview. “We want them to come to our big event for the cycle.”
Ziegler added that the previous signature requirement was too low and easy to create for someone with an email list. He said party officials had looked at what was needed to vote for governor – more than 144,000 – and settled on an amount lower than that.
Power said the board passed the changes easily, with the only real debate over the right number for the petition signing requirement.
“Nobody was upset then,” Power said.