Republican presidential candidate Jim Gilmore says Donald Trump, the flamboyant GOP front-runner, has yet to respond to his challenge for a one-on-one debate on birthright citizenship.
“I’m the only real Republican candidate who stood up to him on this, so I felt the necessity to challenge him mano a mano. But I have not heard back from him,” Gilmore said Saturday in Petersburg, where he paid a surprise visit to an event hosted by the Virginia Federation of Republican Women at the historic Battersea estate.
Trump has provoked a national debate by calling for overturning the birthright citizenship provision of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It guarantees citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. Trump also said he wants to deport all undocumented immigrants and erect a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“If he is going to get around and say these things and this is going to be what he thinks America ought to be like, I think he ought to have an obligation to stand up and defend it,” said Gilmore, who served as Virginia’s governor from 1998 until 2002.
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Stephen J. Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington, said it is wise of Gilmore, who polls lowest among the GOP’s 17 presidential candidates, to try to secure a one-on-one debate with Trump.
“The only way any presidential candidate gets any media attention these days is to talk about Trump or be Trump. And who knows, Trump might even say yes since it offers another platform for Trump to be heard,” Farnsworth said.
The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment Saturday.
Gilmore said he decided to engage Trump because his positions are being broadcast so widely.
“The media are in partnership with him on this,” Gilmore said.
“This is a case where Donald Trump’s name ID was very high when he came into the race because he has done his reality shows, he is very theatrical. And now today, if we are going to focus our attention on name identification, which shows up in the early polling right now, he has an advantage.”
Because he has not breached the 1 percent threshold in most national polls, Gilmore is the only Republican candidate who has not yet not met the criteria to participate in the GOP’s next presidential debate, on Sept. 16.
“It is unfair, because at this early stage of the race, polling is a matter of name identification, not actually voters having an opportunity to consider the positions,” Gilmore said.
Despite the odds, Gilmore remains optimistic and he expects that his name will be on the ballot for the GOP’s presidential primary in Virginia on March 1.
“I have staff collecting petitions right this minute, and we are going to continue to do that. I’m confident we will be on the Virginia ballot,” he said.
“The key now is to make sure Virginians know that one of their own is running for president of the United States so they can judge my views. When they do, they can be proud to have a Virginian in the race.”
Gilmore was unmoved by former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s return into the political arena Thursday, when he endorsed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for president and accepted the co-chairmanship of Bush’s Virginia campaign.
“That’s all right. My strategy doesn’t depend upon the endorsement of any one person. He should do whatever works for his life,” Gilmore said.
