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Area reps prepare for Republican National Convention

One of the main questions facing the Republican party at the convention include whether the party’s base will rally together to support Trump as the presumptive nominee, especially after a tough battle between candidates in the primary races.

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“I’ve gone to the Trump campaign and said, “Hey, if you want an endorsement from me being in the 2nd District of New Mexico we’re going to need to get this relationship with the Hispanics repaired”, Pearce said.

“As governor, Mike Pence basically did the kind of things for IN that Donald Trump is talking about doing for the United States”, he said.

The fervently anti-Trump faction of the party launched an 11th-hour attempt to sabotage his nomination by pushing for a rule change that would allow delegates to vote for whichever candidate they wanted to.

Former presidential candidate Ted Cruz won a large majority of delegates chosen at April’s state party convention, although the win was mainly symbolic because Trump won the state’s March primary and a required first-ballot vote from the delegates. Cruz dropped out shortly thereafter.

“Everybody’s sentiment now is we’re 100 percent behind the nominee, Donald Trump”, Graham said.

Brandishing his running mate’s job-creating credentials, Trump – who pushed back against reports of indecision by deeming the governor “my first choice” – ticked through a list of statistics he said showed how Pence had pulled IN out of economic recession: an unemployment rate that fell to less than 5 percent on his watch, an uptick IN the labor force and a decrease IN IN residents on unemployment insurance.

Pearce, whose wife, Cynthia, is also a convention delegate this week in Cleveland, said he looked forward to welcoming other New Mexico delegates to town and working to smooth over lingering differences of opinion about the party’s nominee. The Republican National Committee even had to deal with embarrassing reports that it had made an urgent last- minute request for US$6 million (S$8 million) from Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson.

Priebus declared on Friday that the anti-Trump effort was dead. Ivanka Trump said to expect “a convention unlike any we’ve ever seen”.

“He’s going to clearly lay out his message and his vision for his presidency”, said Bill Helmich, a Tallahassee political consultant and alternate convention delegate.

“And No. 3, as Donald has continued to reveal himself he’s unfit for the presidency”, she said.

“There’s a lot of the big names that will be good, and then a lot of people that I’m not familiar with”, Lewis said. “He’s a Democrat, he’s a progressive liberal”.

Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz will be one of Michigan’s 59 delegates at the convention in Cleveland.

“They’re going to enjoy it”, Boston said. “The delegates on the floor are going to be his delegates. They understand exactly what I’m saying and they intend to correct it”.

“I think he has the talent to do it”. Placing them in the front of the convention helps Republicans avoid images of disunity. Graham is considering a run, but real debate over Priebus’ replacement won’t begin until after the November election and a vote won’t occur until early next year.

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“Since a year ago, I’ve had a very large number of members of the RNC that have been very encouraging to do it”, Graham said. “So when you have that kind of encouragement you start to consider it”. “I know that’s hard because we had a hard-fought primary, and obviously there’s been controversy associated with some of his comments”.

On to Cleveland