Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal says the way the establishment is selecting candidates to participate in the upcoming Republican presidential debate is improperly creating a national primary.
Following up on his campaign’s call to include early state primary polling in CNBC’s candidate criteria for the Republican primetime debate on October 28, Jindal argued that by ignoring state-specific polling, the debate participants are largely being determined by name recognition.
“By ignoring the early states and instead only looking at meaningless national name ID polls, the networks are in effect trying to create a national primary,” Jindal said. “They are attempting to winnow the field long before the voters in Iowa and New Hampshire get to cast their ballots by restricting access to debates.”
CNBC’s candidate criteria for its upcoming GOP primary debate requires candidates to be polling nationally at 3 percent, a threshold Jindal does not currently meet. The Jindal campaign’s effort to include early state voting comes as the Louisiana governor, has been gaining support in Iowa where a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll had him at 6 percent of the vote, tied for fifth place.
According to Jindal, to not include the early state polling in determining who is on the main stage is unfair and out of touch.
“Just as Chairman Priebus was the only person with the power and authority to attempt to correct the problems he saw in our 2012 nominating process, he is also the only person with the power and authority to force the networks to measure progress in Iowa and New Hampshire, and stop ignoring the reality of how we nominate our nominee for President,” he said.
The governor took a further shot at the current national frontrunner, Donald Trump, pointing to the billionaire businessman as the candidate who profits the most from the national polling requirement.
“The primary beneficiary of this process is Donald Trump, a candidate completely devoid of substance, but a candidate who is well known nationally for his TV show and his juvenile antics. What he lacks in depth or seriousness he more than makes up for with national name recognition from his long career as an entertainer,” Jindal said.
He further argued that no presidential candidate has won the nomination without first winning either the New Hampshire or Iowa primary.
Breitbart has reached out to the RNC for reaction.
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