This past weekend found Donald Trump insisting that there won’t be a revolt among Republican delegates because such move would be “illegal.” He also scoffed at the idea of delegates replacing him on the ticket with someone who collected many fewer delegates. But here’s the problem for trump. It's not—and they might.
Trump has a point that this would be against the current rules, but those rules won’t necessarily govern this year’s Republican National Convention. If the delegates decide to change the rules in July and thwart his nomination, it may seem anti-democratic. But it’s within their authority to do so. …
The committee has the power to make various moves, such as passing a "conscience clause," imposing a supermajority rather than a majority threshold, or releasing all the delegates to support whomever they want rather than the candidate who won their state’s primary or caucus.
So it could be perfectly within the rules for the delegates to stage a Cleveland Putsch, because the rules themselves are still up for grabs.
But what about Trump’s second point? He did win the primary or caucus in 37 states and dominate the Republican delegate count. Surely, Republicans are aware that any move to bypass their presumed nominee would be seen as disruptive, disrespectful to their own base, and downright undemocratic. Why would they risk that?
There's renewed talk in some Republican circles to find a way out as Trump lags big time behind Hillary Clinton in several new polls, and he has the highest unfavorable rating of any candidate for a major party on record -- 70% in this week's Washington Post-ABC poll.
We’ve already had unequivocal demonstrations that Republicans are willing to accept anything—even to embrace Trump’s open racism, misogyny, and religious restrictions—if they feel it’s the best way to advance the “Republican agenda.” Which means: So long as he cuts taxes.
If they feel that Trump has become a threat to that agenda ... why would they not reject him?
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Yes, bypassing the apparent nominee in this way would be an unprecedented move. Even if Republicans could convince some as-yet-undiscovered superstar to lead the drinking songs in Cleveland, it’s hard to imagine that Republicans would not lose some big portion of their base in this election. But that may not be the calculation that’s running through leadership’s head.
If they wash away the orange, they may lose the White House decisively. However, having Trump on the ticket may be seen as weighing down their odds of keeping the Senate, or even the House, to such an extent that it’s considered worth the chance.
While May saw more and more Republican candidates folding into line behind Trump, a series of bad polls, a very public attempt to use race against a federal judge, and Trump’s cringe-worthy response to the Orlando shooting have more and more Republicans trying to keep their own candidate at arm’s length.
Now a group of delegates is actively fundraising in an effort to halt Trump before he can cross the line.
Supporters of a growing anti-Donald Trump movement announced plans Sunday to raise money for staff and a possible legal defense fund as they asked new recruits to help spread the word with less than a month until the Republican National Convention.
It may seem like a long shot, but the group is showing signs of strength.
Having started with just a few dozen delegates, organizers also said Sunday that they now count several hundred delegates and alternates as part of their campaign.
Trump dismissed the rising tide of would-be backstabbers as followers of candidates he defeated in the primaries.
On Saturday, he accused former opponents Jeb Bush and Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) of trying to undermine his candidacy.
But the delegates behind the coup-in-planning insist otherwise. Rather than seeing the party come together as the convention approaches, the GOP is actively ripping itself apart, with both sides lashing out at leadership.
The options for those seeking to drive the dump Trump train are actually many.
They could make a rule change allowing delegates to vote for whoever they want, hoping that this would change the result on the first ballot, or at least encourage enough defectors to prevent Trump from taking a clear victory until someone else could emerge.
The challenge with this, according to a source familiar with the talks, is there has to be a lot of specificity. Delegates will have to be asked not just if they are willing to abandon Trump, but also whether they would then be willing to vote for a specific candidate instead.
They could also change the rules to raise the number of delegates required to win on the first round to some supermajority (really, to “how many does Trump have?” + 1) to get to a second round where delegates already have more freedom.
They might also institute a “conscience clause” that would allow delegates to vote against a candidate if they feel that he has done/said something that disqualified him from office. That’s an idea which has surfaced in previous GOP conventions (usually when someone wasn’t being crazily conservative enough for crazy conservatives).
Really, if the delegates-in-revolt gain control of the rules committee, they could require that candidates named Donald need 2,473 out of 2,472 delegates to win. They could name the candidate directly. It will be more a matter of how they change the rules to defeat Trump, without looking like it’s all backroom smoke imported from 1924. It’s all about finding a way to purge, but still look good.
A delegate from Colorado supporting the campaign said that "we will not put our delegates in an ethical dilemma" if they are unbound. "We live in America. The land of the free. As delegates, we should be free to vote our conscience."
See? Voting against the will of the people isn’t anti-democratic. It’s freeeddddooom!
Make a completely democratic vote to defeat Trump.