The two men who were on the 2012 Republican presidential ticket are holding a closed-door event with a few 2024 candidates – but noticeably absent from the lineup are Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Sen. Mitt Romney and his former running mate Paul Ryan are hosting the two-day summit in Park City, Utah with the goal of finding an alternative to Donald Trump winning the GOP nomination next year.

The candidates at the forum Tuesday and Wednesday are former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Other speakers include Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and former attorney general Bill Barr.

Ryan said on CNBC Tuesday that all ‘non-indicted’ candidates are welcome to attend, but DeSantis and Ramaswamy are notably not attending. 

Sen. Mitt Romney (right) and former House Speaker Paul Ryan (left), who ran on the 2012 GOP presidential ticket together, are hosting their 11th annual summit in Utah this week

The main focus this year is finding – and ultimately funding – an alternative candidate to Trump

While Haley is constantly polling toward the top of the pack, the other three candidates are still considered long shots.

The E2 Summit, which is on its 11th year this year, mostly focuses on discussions about foreign policy, tech and business.

The annual gathering, however, is a powerful coming together of tuned-in and well-connected Republicans who want to find – and ultimately fund – an alternative to Trump.

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The summit’s maestro Spencer Zwick said that those hosting and attending the summit don’t accept the assumption that former President Donald Trump will automatically be the nominee in 2024.

‘[They] don’t just accept that Donald Trump is the nominee,’ he told Axios.

‘That’s not in their DNA,’ Zwick added. ‘They’re genuinely interested in a candidate they can get excited about and get behind.’

Trump is by far the highest polling GOP candidate and it is presumed that he will ultimately clinch the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election since none of the other 11 candidates in the race are close to closing the gap.

Among those attending the two-day, closed-door summit are ex-UN Ambassador Nikki Haley (left) and former Vice President Mike Pence (right)

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who consistently polls in the top five candidates, said summits like the E2 with Romney and Ryan are what is ‘wrong with the broken GOP’

For a while, DeSantis had an early lead against the rest of the field that had many thinking he was the only one that could maybe give Trump a run for his money. But in recent months, his polling has dropped off and some polls even put him as far as fifth place down the line.

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy isn’t pleased about the lack of invite to Romney and Ryan’s summit.

‘Here’s a radical idea: voters should decide who the nominee is, rather than Super PACs or closed-door mega donor summits,’ he posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.

He added: ‘This epitomizes all that’s wrong with the broken GOP.’