“It is an excellent opinion that makes perfectly clear that states like Virginia can not constitutionally regulate the way in which political parties arrange their affairs, including how delegates to the national convention vote”. I think we need to leave it like it is and let the delegates vote as they were bound to do.
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That is why we can not, in good conscience, support Donald Trump for President of the United States.
Anderson pointed out that the former chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, Pat Brady, said he won’t ever support Trump.
Of course this election cycle has landed us in the curious position of having endorsed the candidate who wound up winning the “Republican” nomination – even if our support for him was originally motivated by his contempt for the party establishment. Amusing thing – until this year, disaffection among parts of the base has typically been treated as a failing of the candidate himself, not of the people who refused to support him.
Next week, the Republican Party will convene in Cleveland, Ohio, for its 41st presidential convention. With third-party candidates included, Trump’s edge extends to five points, 41 percent to 36 percent.
The speaker deflected a question from audience member Steve Lonegan, a New Jersey Republican who has been active in the effort to unbind the delegates.
White says he’ll be voting for anyone but Donald Trump, who he says is a “divisive and controversial figure”, and predicted 10-12 Arizona delegates in total are planning to vote their conscience and oppose Trump, while 20-30 more are “very sympathetic to the cause and on the fence”.
“They may not retroactively change the rules by which they were elected”, counsel John Ryder said.
Mendoza, who is running for IL comptroller, said she came to denounce Trump’s “message of hate”. They are free to go to Cleveland and vote for whomever they please. His appearance comes as party leaders refuse to soften the GOP’s formal opposition to gay marriage.
The essence of the ruling is that Virginia may not impose any criminal penalties on delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, who refuse to vote for Donald Trump. At the same time, Trump denounced the name of the Black Lives Matter movement as “a very divisive term”. “Talking about our differences is what makes us great and to actually get through our differences through talking as professionals, adults, rationally, instead of as, like, bullies on the playground”, Mendoza said.
In the weeks before Republicans descended on Cleveland, the band of conservative delegates fighting against Donald Trump promised a scrappy but ardent effort to take the convention by storm. An Associated Press count shows that Trump has 1,543 delegates ready to back his nomination – more than the 1,273 he needs to officially clinch the top slot.
“It is going to be a hard effort”, Lonegan told PolitickerNJ.
“I’m not going to undermine the candidate”, Brady said of Anderson’s comments. But here is the thing: it shouldn’t be a 50-50 shot.
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Another party leader attending the convention told us the federal court ruling was not binding because the party is governed by its own set of rules – and that even if the court’s ruling were binding, it would only impact a portion of the Virginia delegation.
