‘The rules say you have to have 1,237 delegates to be the nominee.
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“He said all decisions will be made by delegates at the convention, not by some smaller group of leaders in Washington or somewhere else”, said Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., who attended Tuesday’s meeting at the party’s national headquarters near the Capitol.
Depending on the state, delegates are not required to favor the candidate they are bound to. Reagan ultimately failed, losing to Ford on the first ballot. Even though failing to nail down numerous delegates in several states is clearly the fault of that same outsider’s inattentive amateur campaign organization apparently unaware of primary rules final and public since October.
And that’s the assumption the Kasich campaign is operating under.
Publicly, most would-be delegates are staying neutral.
On ABC’s This Week, Trump convention manager Paul Manafort, who is in charge of salvaging the billionaire’s delegate gathering operation, reinforced the claim that the system is “rigged”, claiming that delegates are being chosen in “closed caucuses with no voters”. His preferred candidate, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, dropped out early in the race, and English hasn’t committed to anyone else.
As for Trump’s continual attacks on the nomination process, Manafort said he was largely focused on “transparency” and had no genuine desire to undermine the delegate-selection rules.
As the GOP prepares for the possibility of a contested convention, the rules governing the nomination and election of a candidate have come under scrutiny. Many leading Republicans believe, in fact, that Cruz, with his hard-right views, would be an even surer loser in November than the unpredictable Trump, who is unburdened by philosophy.
“Unbound” delegates – 150 to 200 in the first ballot, many more in later ballots – can also vote for whoever they want, whether that contender has been formally nominated or not.
But now, with Donald Trump closing in on the party’s nomination, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Co-Chair Sharon Day are pushing top GOP officials toward acceptance here in Florida, where top Republicans have gathered for their spring meeting.
The prevailing opinion among RNC members was that Trump is simply energising his anti-establishment supporters, a point hammered home by Manafort, who privately told party leaders Trump is “projecting an image” and will transition to a more serious demeanour. Ryder directed questions to Republican Party communications director and top strategist Sean Spicer, who said Ryder’s reply speaks for itself. “There are definitely folks who started the delegate process as Rick Santorum delegates, and they’ve now found someone else”. This year, four people are running in Gessa’s congressional district, and she’s determined to make the cut. “People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate”. That would take a 2/3 majority vote from all delegates. “A vote for me is a vote for Sen”. Cruz’s campaign released an ad highlighting what Trump had said. “Remember, conservatism works, conservatism wins!”
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While there are yet too many unallocated delegates to make an accurate count, Cruz’s mastery of the inside process could give him an advantage Trump might struggle to overcome.
