Former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott will be circling each other in California on Friday, each addressing the state GOP convention. Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy will also be attending the convention on Saturday.
Their addresses come amid some drama over the state party’s new delegate allocation rules.
As NBC News’ Allan Smith reported earlier this month, the state party is potentially making the delegate-rich state a winner-take-all contest. Instead of allocating delegates by congressional district, the new rule would assign all of the state’s delegates to a candidate who wins more than 50% of the vote. But delegates would be allocated proportionally if no candidate reaches that mark.
The rule change, which had Trump’s backing, prompted pushback from DeSantis’ allies and the super PAC supporting him, Never Back Down, pulled its field program in the state as a result.
It would be difficult to change the rules at the convention, Smith reported. The rules are expected to be set on Sunday, which is the deadline for states to submit their delegate selection rules to the Republican National Committee.
In other campaign news …
Biden takes on Trump: Biden forcefully condemned Trump and his wing of the GOP in a speech in Arizona on Thursday, saying, “This MAGA threat is a threat to the brick and mortar of our democratic institutions,” per NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez and Peter Nicholas.
Anti-Trump effort struggles: David McIntosh, the head of Win It Back, a PAC tied to the conservative Club for Growth that’s been launching anti-Trump ads, said in a memo to donors that , “all attempts to undermine [Trump’s] conservative credentials on specific issues were ineffective,” per the New York Times. And CBS reports that some major GOP donors gathering next month will try to encourage Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin to jump into the presidential race.
Across the aisle: The Biden campaign launched a new TV ad Thursday focusing on the president’s work with Republicans, per NBC’s Megan Lebowitz.
Impeachment watch: Witnesses said during House Republicans’ first hearing in their impeachment inquiry into Biden that “while there is no evidence of a crime by President Joe Biden, more bank records are needed from him and his son Hunter Biden to determine if there might be,” write NBC’s Dareh Gregorian, Garrett Haake, Rebecca Kaplan and Rebecca Shabad
Debate drama: Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita told NBC’s Katherine Doyle that Trump will not attend the third GOP debate next month. After this week’s second debate Ronny Rojas of Noticias Telemundo fact checks some of the candidates’ misleading claims on immigration.
Under fire: Politico reports that DeSantis’ rivals are starting to attack his record in Florida, something that was once considered unthinkable as Republicans all over the country championed his conservative wins in the state.
Looking ahead: The Associated Press examines Democrats’ deep bench of future presidential contenders, many of whom are focused on helping reelect Biden next year.
