Businessman Perry Johnson, a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, told Newsmax on Wednesday night he was left out of the first GOP primary debate in Milwaukee because the Republican National Committee was using different criteria regarding polling for different candidates.
The RNC in June issued guidelines candidates need to meet to qualify for a debate, which included having 40,000 individual donors nationally and at least 200 each from 20 states; poll at least 1% in three national polls or 1% in two national polls and 1% in one early state poll from two separate "carve out" states (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina) recognized by the RNC; and sign a pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee.
Johnson told "Rob Schmitt Tonight" his campaign was preparing for the debate Monday night when he received a call from the RNC saying he wasn't eligible.
"I said, 'How is that possible?' I said we have not only all the qualifying polls, I have extra qualifying polls. And they said, well, one qualifying poll that we had, we decided we weren't going to qualify that poll, even though it meant all the standards that are laid out. ... They decided in their own mind that they're going to apply different standards for each candidate as to which poll would count and which wouldn't."
On Thursday, Johnson said he will be filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against the RNC and Fox Corp., parent company of Fox News, which hosted the debate, charging a "collusive effort to cherry-pick participants." The complaint noted the RNC disqualified a Victory Insights poll used by Johnson's campaign that showed Johnson at 1.1%.
The complaint alleged the RNC did not recognize the Victory Insights poll "because it was 'not a national poll,' despite sampling 800 respondents from across the country, balanced by region, and consistent with the results of all other national polling."
Matt Hurley, co-founder of Victory Insights, which is based in Naples, Florida, said he "viciously" disagrees with the RNC's finding and defended the methodology used in the poll, Florida Politics reported.
"The bottom line is, they don't want me on that stage because, let's face it, I am an efficiency expert, and the last thing in the world Washington wants is the guy that's going to come in and trim their power," Johnson said. "They get their power from their budget. They get their power from all that money, and, boy, they love to spend your money."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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