Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel declared that the party loyalty pledge is here to stay after a number of 2024 GOP presidential candidates have called it into question.

The pushback comes after the RNC announced that candidates would have to sign a loyalty pledge to support the party’s eventual nominee in order to qualify for the first GOP primary debate, which is set to take place in August.

“It’s the Republican Party nomination and the pledge is staying,” said McDaniel in an interview with Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday.

“Anybody who wants to seek the nomination of our party should pledge to support the voters. If you go through this process and you take time on the debate stage and you’re going to be there, the number one pledge should be, beat Biden. It’s called the ‘Beat Biden Pledge’ for a reason because at the end of the day, we all have to be united in one thing.”

The loyalty pledge has faced criticism from a number of candidates including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who said it’s a “useless idea” on Sunday.

“I think the pledge is just a useless idea… And by the way, in all my life, we never had to have Republican primary candidates take a pledge,” Christie told CNN’s Jake Tapper, who asked if he’d pledge to support GOP frontrunner and former President Donald Trump “even if he’s a convicted felon.”

“You know, we were Republicans. And the idea is you’d support the Republican whether you won or whether you lost. You didn’t have to ask somebody to sign something.”

Christie delivered his take after Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson allegedly called for a meeting with RNC officials in hopes for an amendment to the loyalty pledge in the wake of Trump’s federal indictment this month, Politico reported.

“We need to concentrate on supporting the principles of the party, which is the rule of law, support of law enforcement and law and order versus simply trying to circle the wagons around Donald Trump and making sure he’s protected going into next year.” Hutchinson told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

Trump, too, has also yet to commit to signing the loyalty pledge and has reportedly considered skipping debates, NBC News reported.

Christie name-dropped Trump on Sunday when he mentioned Trump’s back-and-forth toward his commitment to a loyalty pledge ahead of the 2016 election.

“I’m going to take the pledge just as seriously as Donald Trump took it in 2016,” Christie said.