Four Republican backbencher candidates who failed to qualify for the first 2024 GOP presidential debate this week slammed the Republican National Committee over its rules, with multiple contenders calling them “rigged.”

  • @joe
    10•1 year ago

    I was curious and it turns out that the FEC does have regulation regarding public debates.

    The part that would be relevant doesn’t seem to apply, though:

    c. Criteria for candidate selection.

    For all debates, staging organization(s) must use pre-established objective criteria to determine which candidates may participate in a debate. For general election debates, staging organizations(s) shall not use nomination by a particular political party as the sole objective criterion to determine whether to include a candidate in a debate. For debates held prior to a primary election, caucus or convention, staging organizations may restrict candidate participation to candidates seeking the nomination of one party, and need not stage a debate for candidates seeking the nomination of any other political party or independent candidates.

    So, I guess there is a law that could be potentionally sued over, but I don’t see how the RNC doesn’t fall within the guidelines. I’m not a lawyer.