This month, just days after the second GOP presidential primary debate is set to take place at California’s Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the Golden State’s Republican Party convention is promising a showdown between former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over the state party’s new delegate rule.
California boasts more delegates than any other state in the nation, and, in previous years, the state’s Republicans used to assign them by congressional district, NBC News reports.
“In other words,” according to the outlet, “candidates could more easily target certain areas of the large and expensive state rather than fight over the statewide vote.”
But a GOP rule change made in late July now opens the door for a possible “winner-take-all” scenario in California, meaning, in 2024, the candidate who wins more than 50% of the statewide vote will walk away with all of the delegates.
“Should no one hit that threshold,” NBC News explains, “delegates will be allocated proportionally.”
The change suits the Trump campaign just fine, but DeSantis allies are fuming.
And it’s no wonder.
According to a new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, “about 55% of likely Republican voters plan to cast their primary ballots for Trump.”
“DeSantis’ support has plummeted to 16% — less than half of what he had earlier this year,” the survey found.
Under the old rule, “delegates were awarded to the top two finishers in each congressional district,” NBC News notes, “which would have allowed DeSantis, the second-highest-polling contender in the GOP primary, to obtain a large delegate haul.”
Under that system, DeSantis supporters would have been able to invest more money in targetted congressional districts where California Republicans are more likely to lean toward the Florida governor.
According to Erin Perrine, a spokesperson for the Never Back Down super PAC that backs DeSantis, the rule change makes “grassroots involvement impossible.”
Back when it was written, Perrine described it as a “Trump-inspired rigging,” according to NBC News.
Both Trump and DeSantis are scheduled to speak at the state party convention, and Perrine said she hoped that the rule could be altered once again at that time.
It was all the fuel one Trump campaign advisor needed to dig in.
“If I were going to try and do that, I sure as hell wouldn’t telegraph it,” the advisor said in response to an effort to lobby the delegates for an amendment to the rule. “Because she said that, I’m going be ready for it. And the president can be ready for it, because he’s going to be there.”
To change the rule at this stage of the game, the amendment would have to make it through the rules committee and the majority of the state party’s delegation would have to support it, the chairwoman of the state Republican Party, Jessica Millan Patterson, said.
“Without support from the rules committee,” NBC News reports, “two-thirds of the state party convention delegation would have to back any change — which is in excess of 1,400 members.”
Despite what the DeSantis camp may believe, the rule change was not designed to give Trump a boost, Patterson said. Instead, it was about giving more than the top two candidates a chance to pick up some delegates, thus making a primary campaign in California more appealing.
“We saw right away, as soon as we made this rule change, multiple candidates saying, ‘We want to be at your convention,'” Patterson said. “They are now playing in California. The ability to walk away from a Super Tuesday with a percentage of the delegates is really exciting for a lot of these candidates.”
“Certainly, when you’re in that first or second spot and you would be walking away with some delegates, I get it,” she added. “But our job is to make sure that this is a fair process for all of the candidates that are entering this race.”
“This puts us in a unique position where candidates are working really hard, not just for a fundraiser in California, because we’re used to that, but to really earn our votes,” Patterson said. “And that’s exciting.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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