RNC Looks To Declare Primary Over, Name Trump Winner Before Any More Votes
‘Who cares what the RNC says?’ Nikki Haley’s campaign counters.
The Republican National Committee is looking at declaring President Trump as the party’s presumptive nominee despite Ambassador Haley’s promise to stay in the race.
A draft of an RNC resolution proposed by committeeman David Bossie and obtained by The Dispatch on Thursday would officially declare Mr. Trump to be the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party.
“RESOLVED that the Republican National Committee hereby declares President Trump as our presumptive 2024 nominee for the office of President of the United States and from this moment forward moves into full general election mode welcoming supporters of all candidates as valued members of Team Trump 2024,” reads the resolution.
The resolution, if passed, would not only be a snub to Ms. Haley, who has promised to keep her campaign going despite the long odds, but bypass current RNC rules.
Under the current rules, Mr. Trump still needs to win 1,215 delegates out of a total of 2,429 available to win the nomination. Mr. Trump currently has 32 and Ms. Haley currently has 17.
In response to the report, a spokeswoman for Ms. Haley’s campaign, Olivia Perez-Cubas, said in a statement, “Who cares what the RNC says?”
“We’ll let millions of Republican voters across the country decide who should be our party’s nominee, not a bunch of Washington insiders,” Ms. Perez-Cubas said. “If Ronna McDaniel wants to be helpful she can organize a debate in South Carolina, unless she’s also worried that Trump can’t handle being on the stage for 90 minutes with Nikki Haley.”