Meet the Republican presidential candidate who hasn't held a single campaign event

Republican presidential candidate Jim Gilmore

(Image credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

published 8 September 2015

Jim Gilmore's latest poll numbers are at 0.0 percent, but he's not worried. Even though presidential candidates must "average 1 percent in three major national polls" to appear in the televised debates, The Washington Post reports that the former governor of Virginia and 2016 Republican hopeful simply shrugs off the requirement as unfair. "I'm just going to tell you straight up, okay? I think that these standards of poll numbers are ridiculous," Gilmore told The Post. He doesn't think that polls this early "capture which candidates are truly substantive."

Gilmore's attitude toward the polls is just one of many examples of him simply refusing to play the game. As The Washington Post points out, so far, Gilmore's 'campaign' has included: "No handshakes in Iowa. No rallies in New Hampshire. Nothing. Gilmore didn't even meet anyone at his kickoff rally — there was no kickoff rally. Just a video of Gilmore, speaking to the camera alone."

Gilmore hasn't purchased any television ads and it took him a month after announcing to open headquarters. The latest "appearance" Gilmore claimed to have made was actually just a party hosted by the Virginia Federation of Republican Women "to raise money for elephant conservation," The Washington Post reports.