After the 2012 president election, it was clear that the Republican Party needed to take steps to give our presidential nominees a better chance at winning the White House.
One of those steps is a shorter primary process. It’s my goal to have a convention in late June or early July. That way the nominee has access to general election resources earlier, allowing him or her to be more competitive against the Democrats’ nominee. It also means the media can’t over-hype a drawn-out fight among our candidates.
But we did have to make sure that our primary voters would have their voices heard–and that all primary candidates would have a chance to make their cases.
So on Friday, we passed new rules to shape the 2016 presidential primary process.
- First, the “carve out” states (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada) will hold their contests in February.
- Other states can start their contests on or after March 1.
- Any contest between March 1st and March 14th must allocate delegates on a proportional basis.
- Any contest after March 14th may choose to allocate delegates proportionally or on a winner-take-all basis.
- The deadline for selection of alternates and delegates will move from 35 days before the convention to 45 days before the convention.
In crafting these rules, we were committed to three basic principles:
- Giving our nominee the best chance of winning
- Empowering our voters to have their voices heard
- Letting all our candidates have time to share their vision with voters
By sticking to those principles and enforcing these new rules, we will have a primary process that is fair for all involved, and we will have a nominee who enters the general election in a position of strength.