Tipsheet

One Major Candidate Will Be Missing From the First GOP Presidential Candidate Summit

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  July 12, 2023 11:30 AM

While we're still waiting to hear whether or not former and potentially future President Donald Trump will participate in the first RNC debate a little more than a month away, we already know that we won't be hearing from him at one upcoming event. On Friday, Tucker Carlson will be hosting a live summit with BlazeMedia and the FAMiLY Leader. The event, known as the Summit, will be streamed on the BlazeTV YouTube channel. It's part of the FAMiLY Leadership Summit taking place on Friday. 

Among the candidates who will be participating include Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC), Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), former Vice President Mike Pence, and former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR). 

Via Twitter, Haley promoted her involved at the summit. 

The Scott campaign sent out a fundraising email about the event, highlighting the importance of faith in his life. He also released an ad discussing his faith on Wednesday morning ahead of the summit.

The campaign for Trump, currently the clear frontrunner, released a statement that cited a scheduling conflict. "President Trump was in Iowa last week and will be back next week," a spokesperson for the Trump campaign told The Hill. "Unfortunately there is a scheduling conflict and the President will be in Florida this weekend headlining the premier national young voter conference with Turning Point Action conference while DeSantis is nowhere to be found."

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That conference is taking place July 15-July 16. 

Coverage abounds about Trump's absence and how it could potentially hurt him in Iowa, including from the following outlets:

RealClearPolitics (RCP) currently shows Trump with a spread of +24.0 in Iowa, with 47.7 percent support compared to DeSantis' 23.7 percent support. 

Should Trump not participate in the RNC debate, it will be because of what he says is a "hostile" relationship with Fox News. Anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum will be hosting the debate. Trump had sat down with Baier for an interview last month. 

Trump has also cited his poll numbers to argue that as the front-runner, he does not need to participate. RCP currently shows him with a spread of +31.6 at the national level. He enjoys 52.6 percent support, with DeSantis in a distant second with 21.0 percent. 

In order to make the RNC debate stage, candidates will have to meet polling and donor thresholds. Once they do so, they will then be asked to sign a pledge indicating they will support the eventual nominee. 

Jason Miller, an adviser to Trump, indicated during a NewsNation interview on Tuesday that the candidate is unlikely to participate. As The Hill summarized:

“At the moment, President Trump has indicated that he’s unlikely to participate, at least in the first two debates. He’s up by 30, 40, and even new polling shows he’s up by almost 50 percent in certain places,” Miller said. “It really wouldn’t make much sense for him to go and debate right now with a bunch of folks who are down at three, four and five percent. Even [Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis], who’s the second-place candidate in the race currently, is at least 20, 30 or 40 points behind.”

“So ultimately, President Trump will make a decision as we get closer. He has not said anything definitive, one way or the other. I’m not expecting him to participate, though,” Miller said.

Trump chose not to participate in a Fox News RNC debate in January 2016, and instead held an event benefiting veterans. He indicated at the time that he did not regret not participating, which stands to reason given that he still won the nomination.