Republican presidential debates raise huge Trump question as candidates jockey for nomination
Fox News
Republican presidential debates raise huge Trump question as candidates jockey for nomination. Primary field grows as challengers wonder how to stand out.
More problematic: candidates will also have to sign a loyalty pledge, vowing to support the eventual nominee. Would Chris Christie agree to support candidate Donald Trump? Would Trump agree to back anyone at all? He refused to make that commitment in 2016. Will he be more accommodating now?
The debates, consequently, loom large. The first will take place in Milwaukee and be broadcast by Fox News. The second will be staged at the Reagan Presidential Library in California; it has not been announced which network will broadcast that forum.
To appear alongside their rivals in these slugfests, candidates must meet various polling and money-raising targets, such as polling at a minimum of 1% in three nationwide non-affiliated polls and taking in donations from at least 40,000 unique supporters. Those hurdles should be relatively easy for most of the folks in the race today. More problematic: candidates will also have to sign a loyalty pledge, vowing to support the eventual nominee. Would Chris Christie agree to support candidate Donald Trump? Would Trump agree to back anyone at all? He refused to make that commitment in 2016. Will he be more accommodating now? More important to the entire undertaking, what if Trump, who is leading by a wide margin, decides not to participate? In late April, he said that no one had obtained his approval before scheduling the debates.