Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized the Republican Party of Florida for choosing to not have gubernatorial candidates debate at the upcoming Sunshine State Showdown at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood on June 27th while taking questions from reporters at a press conference in West Palm Beach this week.
"There should be a debate. They said they were going to do a debate; they didn't put out the criteria publicly, I don't think the RPOF [Republican Party of Florida] ever voted on any type of criteria," DeSantis said. I wouldn't have qualified when I ran an 18' for what they were trying to do. And so, it's counterproductive when you try to engineer an outcome, because you need a coalition of voters to do well."
According to the RPOF, gubernatorial candidates must reach a 10/10/10 threshold for a sanctioned debate.
- 10% support in RPOF polling and align with other credible polls
- Raised 10 million+ dollars
- Have 10,000+ donors
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) is the only candidate to meet those marks, including 38.8% of the vote in a recent RPOF poll. Lt. Gov. Jay Collins (7.6%), businessmen James Fishback (4.1%), and former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner (2.2%) are also in the race, but trail in the party's requirement.
Rep. Donalds also held a major lead in an Associated Industries of Florida poll and others released over the past several months. Three of the four candidates (Donalds/Collins/Renner) are expected to be at the Showdown.
"Having an open process and having people be able to have their say is always better than to try to try to engineer an outcome," DeSantis continued. "What the party should be doing is doing what's in the best interest of Republican voters. You shouldn't have another agenda. You shouldn't be answering to anyone else other than the voters there."
DeSantis also added that the RPOF controlling the debate structure was "ridiculous."
"The party has a very limited role. It's really should be a candidate-driven process, and not for people to be making decisions who voters have never voted into those positions to begin with," DeSantis said. "So, line up something with TV, line up something [with] radio, all these different forms, podcast, there's a whole host of ways that you can do, but to just set criteria, especially with polling, when most people haven't started paying attention."
The primary is Aug. 18.
