But a litany of Republican National Committee members – including John Ryder, the party’s top lawyer – argued that any change to the 2012 convention rules would fuel the public outrage sparked by Donald Trump over the complex delegate process.
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“He is making sure that the rules are the rules, that we follow the rules”, said House Speaker Paul Ryan, who like Priebus is from Wisconsin.
Some of the 168 members of the Republican National Committee want to change the convention rules to make it harder for party leaders to allow new presidential candidates to be nominated. Any delegate with an objection would then have to be recognized by the presiding officer. “Majority rule is as American as apple pie or Opening Day”.
Any change now to convention rules will wait until July.
But RNC members were adamant: Now is not the time to make sweeping changes to the rules.
Priebus pledged that the party would run a “fair, democratic and transparent convention” in Cleveland, as he pointed to Abraham Lincoln’s nomination as well as his own. Ted Cruz, is scheduled to personally appear at the RNC meeting, held at the beachfront Diplomat Resort & Spa, to schmooze with committee members.
The arcane nominating process has dominated the headlines in recent weeks as Trump has made attacking the party’s selection process the center of his stump speech.
Anti-Trump Republicans have long suggested that if Trump falls short of the 1,237 delegates needed to seal the Republican nomination, he might be stopped at the first ballot at the nominating convention in July. And to avoid giving Trump further ammunition for attacks, a group RNC members, led by Chairman Reince Priebus, have been lobbying Rules Committee members to oppose any changes to the rules. Only 33 percent said GOP delegates should pick the nominee for voters.
An internal GOP battle of emails erupted last weekend, with RNC Arizona committeeman Bruce Ash, who chairs the party rules committee, accusing Republican leaders of “a breach of our trust” by trying to improperly sideline Yue’s proposal.
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Scott didn’t use the mic to try to sway leaders to get behind Trump, his favored candidate. It’s a position delegates like Jeremy Blosser, a state delegate from Texas, says needs to be taken very seriously because the outcome of the nomination could be at stake, “Delegates can’t go into that meeting unprepared”.
