Faced with likely Trump coronation, some GOP delegates quit

“There’s so much energy to do this”, said Dane Waters, co-founder of Delegates Unbound, one group challenging the widely held conventional wisdom that GOP rules require almost all delegates to back a specific candidate, based on state primaries and caucuses.

“They haven’t in any way weighed in on the gun issue”, said Kansas delegate Kris Kobach of the Trump lieutenants.

Donald Trump in New Hampshire in February.

The Convention Rules Committee will meet tomorrow to discuss whether to amend the rules on how delegates may vote.

“We intend to support the entire Republican ticket”.

One thing is patently clear: The RNC will have a big job ahead of them if they intend to marshal delegates around their prospective nominee. It consists of two members from every state plus officials from the national party organization.

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.

Trump has far more delegates than needed for the nomination.

For Lonegan, the move to unpledge delegates has nothing to do with undermining voters. A delegate bound for Trump could vote to unbind the delegates from the results of a state’s primary or a state’s party rules, or a delegate bound for Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) or for Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), could likewise choose to pass a rule to bind the delegates.

“Delegates are individuals and, ultimately, they are there to represent the entire Republican Party”.

They face long odds against an alliance of Trump’s campaign and leaders of the Republican National Committee, all of them pressing delegates to oppose the dissidents. Among them was Rachel Hoff, a delegate from Washington D.C., who is the first openly gay member of the platform committee.

Brady said he’s not happy to hear Trump delegates like Anderson are skipping the convention – but he also acknowledges that their absence helps his cause of trying to stop Trump from receiving the Republican nomination. But the anti-Trump forces lack a consensus alternative to step in as the nominee should their coup succeed.

Williams said, “We’ll make sure people stay within the parameters of what is allowed and what is not”. “We would like to see a number of candidates put their names forward and take part in the convention”.

“We don’t have people who run for office who 100 percent reflect all of our views”, Ryan said.

Later, as delegates supported an amendment to insert language reiterating opposition to the Supreme Court’s ruling that gay marriage is constitutionally protected, Dickerson said: “Has a dead horse been beaten enough yet?” “It’s just a normal political process that goes on, and not everybody makes it”.

FiveThirtyEight gives Trump a one-in-five chance of winning.

Delegates Unbound – the campaign operations arm of the group Free The Delegates – had vote-counters set up in delegations for 30 states, as of Monday afternoon.

He continued: “I anticipate the RNC to use all their power to keep this convention under control and get the outcome they want”.

Fox News says it is suspending its contributor agreement with Newt Gingrich “due to the intense media speculation” about him as a potential vice presidential candidate of Republican Donald Trump.

Rising tensions after the deadly ambush of police officers in Dallas and subsequent protests nationwide have led Cleveland and Philadelphia to adjust security plans for the national political conventions this month.