RNC Tells Larry Elder He Can't Rely on a Rasmussen Poll to Qualify for Debate; Elder Says He'll Sue

AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

Conservative radio host and GOP presidential candidate Larry Elder thought he’d done enough to qualify for the Republican presidential debate scheduled for Wednesday, but was notified Tuesday that he had been ruled out. An outraged Elder took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to announce his intention to sue:

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"I intend to sue the RNC to halt Wednesday's presidential debate.

I said from the beginning that it appeared the rules of the game were rigged, little did we know just how rigged it is," Elder said in a release. "For some reason, the establishment leaders at the RNC are afraid of having my voice on the debate stage. Just as I had to fight to successfully be on the ballot in the California recall election, I will fight to be on that debate stage because I fully met all of the requirements to do so."

In an earlier post, Elder said that RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel had informed him that one of the reasons he was disqualified was because he relied on a Rasmussen poll, which the RNC said was “Trump-aligned.”

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Elder was extremely displeased with the decision:

As you can see, I'm at LAX [Los Angeles International Airport] en route to Milwaukee. I was just informed by RNC that I'm not qualified for the debate. 

Why? Even though I exceeded the 40,000 individual donations required, even though I signed the pledge to support the eventual nominee, even though I submitted three polls where I was at least at one percent, I was informed that one of the polls is not eligible. 

It's the Rasmussen poll, even though it's the most accurate poll in predicting that Donald Trump would win in 2016. They say it is affiliated with Donald Trump and therefore it is not eligible. And I said to Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the RNC, it’s not affiliated with me. She said, any poll affiliated with any candidate is not eligible -- and no one told me that until just now.

So we're filing an emergency injunction to get me up there. This is absolutely BS...

[The process]... is designed, in my opinion, to make sure that Ron DeSantis is the nominee -- anybody other than Trump.

This is BS. I will see you in Milwaukee. Out.

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Elder is not the only one upset – businessman Perry Johnson also failed to make the RNC's list , though he proclaimed Friday that he'd qualified:

Johnson, a businessman from Michigan, also claimed to have met every requirement for the debate, yet the RNC rejected him. In a statement obtained by independent journalist Ben Jacobs, he said the RNC had preconceived ideas about who they wanted on stage.

“It is clear that from the beginning, the RNC knew who they wanted on the stage and who they wanted to ban from the stage,” Johnson said. “Simply put, this is a flawed decision of a poorly run process of a corrupt organization.”

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Texas Representative Will Hurd also did not meet the requirements, according to the RNC.

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