Larry Elder to sue RNC, says he qualified for the debate

Conservative media personality Larry Elder announced on Tuesday that he plans to sue the Republican National Committee for excluding him from the Wednesday primary debate, claiming he legitimately qualified to participate.

"I intend to sue the RNC to halt Wednesday's presidential debate. I said from the beginning that it appeared the rules of the game were rigged, little did we know just how rigged it is," he posted on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. "For some reason, the establishment leaders at the RNC are afraid of having my voice on the debate stage. Just as I had to fight to successfully be on the ballot in the California recall election, I will fight to be on that debate stage because I fully met all of the requirements to do so."

The same day, the RNC announced that eight candidates had qualified, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

To qualify, candidates had to accumulate 40,000 unique donors, including at least 200 in 20 or more states or territories. They also had to sign a pledge to support the eventual party nominee and clear at least 1% support in three qualifying national polls or a combination of national polls and polls from at least two early primary states.

Elder's campaign says he met the donor requirements, but that the RNC refused to count Rasmussen polls, saying the surveyor has "ties to former President Donald Trump," who is not planning to participate in the debate. It remains unclear if Elder or the RNC referenced a specific survey or if said survey in fact had any ties to Trump.

Elder, however, has since claimed to qualify in another valid poll conducted before the RNC deadline.

"The RNC Committee on Debates meets in Milwaukee today. Are they even aware their leaders are keeping voices off the stage that qualified?" he asked. "I'm calling for a discussion and a vote of the full committee on the rigged polling criteria set by the anti-conservative, anti-Trump RNC establishment."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.