CNN announced on Wednesday night it will host a debate between the Republican presidential hopefuls in Florida on March 10, five days before the Sunshine State hosts its primary.
The stakes will be high if some of the candidates with Florida ties will still be standing by the middle of March as the primary is winner-takes-all. Florida has plenty of candidates with former Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio in the hunt. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas moved to the Panhandle after his 2008 presidential bid and he is running for the GOP nod again. Dr. Ben Carson moved to South Florida after ending his celebrated medical career.
Florida is not the only state up for grabs on March 15 as Illinois, Missouri and Ohio are also scheduled to hold their primaries on that day. But, unlike Florida, those states are scheduled to divvy up their delegates based on how candidates perform instead of giving all the delegates to whoever wins the state.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) backed CNN airing the debate.
"If debates are needed in March, we look forward to CNN hosting the debate in Florida," said Sean Spicer from the RNC on Wednesday.
State Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, said the CNN debate would be important and called the Sunshine State crucial to both the Republican primary contest and the general election in November 2016.
“With Florida’s diverse population and 99, winner-take-all delegates we welcome CNN’s announcement to hold their debate in the Sunshine State,” Ingoglia said on Wednesday night. “Furthermore, this ensures that all presidential campaigns will have to spend a considerable amount of time in Florida speaking to Republicans from Pensacola to Key West and everywhere in-between. Any campaign that can mount a successful statewide effort in Florida will be well-positioned to run a national campaign come 2016.”
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
