'Last-minute surprise candidate' qualifies for GOP primary in Florida’s winner-take-all contest

Following the passage of the qualifying deadline for presidential primary candidates, the Republican Party of Florida announced eight candidates will be on the 2024 GOP ballot — including one entrant Politico referred to as a "last-minute surprise candidate."

Most of the eight candidates are names that have been prominent in the campaign news cycle in recent months like former President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. However, Politico reports that Texas-based pastor and CEO Ryan Binkley has also qualified for the ballot.

According to the Des Moines Register, Binkley is pastor of the nondenominational Create Church in Richardson, Texas, and is also CEO and co-founder of the Generational Equity Group. Binkley purchased $250,000 worth of radio and TV ads in November, and announced plans to soon blitz the state "probably three weeks a month" as the Iowa caucuses approach.

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Binkley told the Register he's centering his campaign around the national debt, healthcare, immigration and education. He placed blame on both parties for the national debt, and admonished Trump in particular for increasing the national deficit under his administration. He added that he plans to find a bipartisan approach to immigration and wants to incorporate Democrats' ideas for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

"One party wants a secure border, the other wants some sort of pathway of success for the immigrants that are here," he said. "I think we're going to have to work together with some sort of visibility plan to know who's in our country right now."

Florida's contest is one of the biggest primaries on the calendar, with 126 delegates at stake. Republican voters in the Sunshine State will cast ballots for their preferred candidate on March 19, 2024, which will be after both the early nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, and after the Super Tuesday primaries, which fall on March 5. Because the GOP requires a candidate win at least 1,235 pledged delegates to capture the nomination, a full 10% of delegates needed to become the Republican nominee in 2024 will come from Florida.

According to RealClearPolitics, the latest polls have Donald Trump firmly in front of the rest of the pack, leading by roughly 40 points on average.

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Politico's full report is here.