Candidates challenging President Donald Trump are angry over plans from four states to cancel their 2020 GOP presidential primaries and caucuses, saying that the election is being rigged in the president's favor.
According to three Republican officials familiar with the plans, party leaders in South Carolina, Nevada, Arizona, and Kansas are likely to finish their plans to cancel the primaries, reports Politico.
"Trump and his allies and the Republican National Committee are doing whatever they can do to eliminate primaries in certain states and make it very difficult for primary challengers to get on the ballot in a number of states," former Rep. Joe Walsh, who launched his campaign in August, told Politico. "It's wrong. The RNC should be ashamed of itself, and I think it does show that Trump is afraid of a serious primary challenge because he knows his support is very soft."
Walsh said he intends to be on the ballot in every state, and his campaign will "loudly call out this undemocratic bull on a regular basis."
Another candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, said in a statement that in the United States, "we don't elect presidents by acclamation ... Donald Trump is doing his best to make the Republican Party his own personal club. Republicans deserve better."
States have canceled party primaries in the past. Arizona did not hold a Democratic primary in 2012 when President Barack Obama was seeking reelection or in 1996 when President Bill Clinton was running again. Kansas also did not hold a Democratic primary in 1996, and state officials said they have often skipped primaries during an incumbent's reelection bid.
"As a general rule, when either party has an incumbent president in the White House, there's no rationale to hold a primary," South Carolina GOP Chairman Drew McKissick said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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