By Catalina Salazar || Contributing Writer

Last week, Donald Trump signed a loyalty pledge to the Republican Party that will effectively rule out the possibility of him running as a third party candidate during the presidential primary elections. This decision could secure him the support of strict party voters who previously may have questioned his loyalty to the Republican Party. Since announcing his entry into the 2016 presidential race in June, Trump has come under fire from fellow Republicans who question his allegiance to the
Party.

In the first GOP debate on Aug. 6, he refrained from making the pledge to support the Republican candidate that receives the nomination during the primaries, as well as promising not to run as an independent or write-in candidate. Of the 10 candidates on stage at the Fox News debate, Trump, the GOP presidential frontrunner, was the only one who failed to declare his loyalty to the Party.

According to a Washington Post article, Trump stated at an event in New York, “I will be totally pledging my allegiance to the Republican Party and the conservative principles for which it stands.” On Sep. 3, Trump tweeted a photo of the signed pledge from his official Twitter account.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush reacted to Trump’s signing of the pledge with a tweet directed at Trump’s official twitter account. Bush tweeted a photo of a piece of paper stating “voted republican since 1972” followed by his signature. In a phone interview with CNN, Trump explained that he had once considered himself a Democrat; however, similar to popular Republican president Ronald Reagan, his ideology evolved over time into what he says are his current conservative beliefs.

Trump remains at the very top of the GOP presidential polls into the month of September, as former front-runner Jeb Bush falls to third and neurosurgeon Ben Carson takes his place in second. Despite their very public rivalry, Bush has reaffirmed his loyalty to the Party, affirming that he would indeed vote for Trump if he were to become the Republican nominee. According to a CNN article, the former Florida governor claimed, “We need to be unified. We need to win.” After the Republican debate back in August, Bush stated that any candidate on that debate stage would serve to be a better president than Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

Senior Catalina Salazar is a contibuting writer. Her email is csalazar@fandm.edu.