Florida will make Republican candidates sign loyalty pledge to support eventual nominee

Move comes after 2016 nomination of Trump splintered off some of his critics

Florida is joining the national Republican Party in the bid to enforce unity and loyalty among the party’s 2024 field of candidates.

Politico reported on Thursday that candidates seeking to appear on the ballot in the Sunshine State, site of a winner-take-all primary where 125 delegates are at stake, will be required to pledge their loyalty to the party’s eventual nominee, in the event that they lose. It’s an unprecedented move for the GOP that comes after the contentious 2016 nomination of Donald Trump resulted in a number of prominent #NeverTrump conservatives splintering off and refusing to support his nomination or general election candidacy that year.

And it’s a risky proposition for the party, given that the leading candidate, Donald Trump, has given no specific indication that he will respect the results if he loses. The former president is currently facing two separate criminal investigations related to the last election in which he participated, thanks to his refusal to accept those results.

Mr Trump’s leading rival for the nomination is Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, a former ally of the ex-president who has been brutalised by the Republican ex-president’s team on social media for months as he prepared and eventually launched his own candidacy.

Other candidates for the nomination have treated the idea of a loyalty pledge — which, notably, does not actually have any enforcement mechanisms to speak of — with scorn and outright ridicule.

“I'll take the pledge in 2024 just as seriously as Donald Trump took it in 2016,” New Jersey Gov Chris Christie told CNN of the Republican Party’s requirement for candidates to sign that agreement in order to appear on the debate stage.

Mr Trump remains the leading contender for the nomination in all available polling. Recent surveys have shown Mr DeSantis’s second-place spot slipping as he faces surging rivals like Vivek Ramaswamy.

The first Republican debate is scheduled for 23 August on Fox News. The Florida primary will take place on 19 March, 2024.