NJGOP Chairman Bob Hugin says his organization’s proposal to scrap a June 2024 statewide presidential primary in favor of a closed convention was “intended to provoke lively discussion,” a possible signal that he isn’t married to the plan (or could be backing away from it).
“The late date of the New Jersey Presidential Primary prevents Republican and Democrat voters from having a real impact on the selection of their party’s preferred Presidential candidate,” explained Hugin in a late Tuesday release. “The Democrats have decided not to move the Primary Election date earlier in the year in 2024, which would have allowed for Democrat and Republican voters to have a substantive say in their Presidential nominee.”
Hugin further argued that the RNC is forcing New Jersey Republicans’ hands.
“In accordance with recent RNC guidance, we are forced to re-examine our selection process for Presidential convention delegates,” the former biotech executive and U.S. Senate nominee continued. “We are committed to ensuring a process in which all Republican votes are counted and can have an impact on the Republican party’s choice for the nomination of a Presidential candidate in 2024. Our goal as Republicans is to give every voter a real say in the outcome of every election.”
Former NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt disagress with the premise.
“At the outset, I note that the NJGOP’s proposal to eliminate the June 4, 2024, presidential primary election delegate selection process is premised on Chairman Hugin’s representation that the RNC revised and eliminated the rule that allowed a waiver from the RNC imposed, May 31, 2024, deadline for states to submit presidential delegate names,” Steinhardt, a sitting state senator and Warren County chairman, countered in a letter to his successor. “This is a rule with which I am familiar, since it existed in 2020 when I served as NJGOP Chairman, and we availed ourselves of ti so New Jersey’s delegates could be accepted and qualified by the RNC to participate in the July 2020 presidential convention.”
Steinhardt expressed skepticism that Hugin was shooting straight regarding the status of the RNC rule. Accepting for argument’s sake that it had, Steinhardt urged the NJGOP to “appeal to the RNC to accept our delegates, alter an open and transparent June 4, 2024, New Jersey Republican primary.”
“The RNC rule setting a May 31 deadline to provide delegate names is arbitrary and capricious,” Steinhardt added. “History proves it isn’t necessary for an effective and efficient July convention process, and the U.S. Constitution guarantees us certain rights as relates to the election of our president. At the very least, we owe it to millions of No Republicans to fight for them, not cut them out.”
Meanwhile, in his own aforementioned press release, Hugin stressed that the path forward would be a conversation.
“At our meeting this evening, the State Committee will discuss how to find a way to comply with the RNC’s internal rules and invigorate Republican voters and provide a way for them to have a meaningful vote in the selection of our Presidential candidate,” said Hugin. “The draft document sent to State Committee members was intended to provoke a lively discussion on this topic, which it certainly has. I am confident that the State Committee will discuss all available options and come to the best decision, as Republicans act positively to take back New Jersey from the destructive hands of the Democrats.”
