VOTE AMERICAN!
VOTE TRUTH!
VOTE TRUMP!
Posted on 04/09/2016 8:30:19 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In Colorado and South Carolina, the GOP's embattled front-runner had another very bad day.
Donald Trump’s struggle to win loyal delegates to the Republican National Convention grew even more desperate on Saturday, with crushing losses in Colorado and South Carolina that put victory at a contested convention further from his grasp.
Trump, who handed the reins of much of his campaign this week to strategist Paul Manafort in an effort to shore up his operation before the nomination slips away, was swept out of delegate slots up for grabs at Colorado’s state convention. Adding to his woes, he picked up just one delegate of six on the ballot in South Carolina. The most painful result, though, may have been Trump’s failure to capture two of three slots in his strongest South Carolina congressional district.
In fact, Trump lost five of the six delegate seats on the ballot in South Carolina’s 3rd and 7th congressional districts. Ted Cruz nabbed a delegate in the 7th district, while another, Alan Clemmons, remained uncommitted despite Trump’s dominant finish there in the state’s Feb. 20 primary. (The Manhattan billionaire won 43 percent of the district’s vote, to Cruz’s 20 percent and Kasich’s 6 percent.) Cruz also won two of three delegates in the 3rd district, while a third — Susan Aiken, a supporter of Marco Rubio — will go to the convention as an uncommitted delegate.
At the same time, Trump so far has been swept in Colorado, which unlike most states chooses its delegates indirectly, through a series of caucuses. Cruz, who has had a team working the state for months, received a thunderous ovation in Colorado Springs at Saturday afternoon’s chaotic GOP assembly as he announced his preliminary delegate haul while Trump’s bare-bones operation struggled to get organized.
After firing the organizer initially put in charge of Colorado last week, Trump’s team hired Patrick Davis, a GOP operative from Colorado Springs, to put together a slate in an effort to win some of the delegate slots to be elected by just fewer than 4,000 party activists at Saturday’s assembly. Heading in, Cruz had already swept the seven assemblies held in the state’s congressional districts, each of which elect three delegates, giving him 21 of Colorado’s 34 elected delegates – a majority – before ballots hit the floor at the state convention.
"We have beaten Donald Trump," Cruz told supporters packed into the World Arena.
Trump’s last-minute organizing effort did not go well. The leaflet his campaign handed out listed a slate of 26 delegates. But in many cases the numbers indicating their ballot position — more than 600 delegates are running for 13 slots — were off, meaning that Trump’s team was mistakenly directing votes toward other candidates’ delegates.
When the balloting results were announced Saturday evening, Cruz picked up the 13 statewide at-large delegates chosen during Saturday’s convention, with the final three appointed automatically by the Colorado Republican Party, giving him all 34 of Colorado's elected delegates (Trump did win six of the 34 alternate spots).
“Cruz had the crowd eating out of his hand when he spoke,” said Kelly Maher, a GOP operative based in Denver.
It’s an extension of a losing streak for Trump that threatens the mogul’s odds of winning the Republican nomination at what is increasingly likely to be a contested convention in July. Trump is close to falling short of enough support in the state-level primaries and caucuses to clinch the nomination outright, meaning his fate would be determined by delegates in Cleveland.
Yet Trump’s thinly staffed operations, even in the states he carried easily in February and March primaries, have left little organization behind to support delegate candidates. In addition to the congressional-district routs in South Carolina and Colorado, he’s been dealt setbacks in Indiana, North Dakota, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Dakota, and Georgia. Massachusetts is also shaping up as a delegate battleground, despite Trump’s dominance of the popular vote there.
Trump has primarily lost delegate races to Cruz, whose superior organization, months of preparatory work and resonance among the GOP’s activist base has helped him consolidate support in the insider-oriented battle for delegates. Trump has begun mobilizing for a delegate push in recent days, empowering Manafort, a veteran of past convention battles, to lead his effort, but the 67-year-old lobbyist and political consultant is still playing catch-up.
Trump dominated South Carolina’s Feb. 20 primary in a much more crowded field, earning the obligatory support of all 50 of the state’s convention delegates on the first ballot at the national convention, set to be held in Cleveland. But if Trump falls short of clinching the nomination on a first vote, these delegates will become “unbound” on a second ballot, free to support the candidate of their choice.
Trump’s lone South Carolina delegate on the day, Jerry Rovner of Pawleys Island, said he’d stick with Trump so long as it looked like he had a shot to win the convention on subsequent ballots. But he said he’s open to backing Cruz as well, though he won’t consider any other candidate, even new entrants into the contest at the convention.
“The people that put the work in, that’s who I’m gonna support. I’m going to start with Donald Trump and I’ll stay with him,” he said.
Gerri McDaniel, who won an alternate slot for Trump in the 7th District, said she was frustrated to finish just outside the top three in voting and noted that she had been sick, preventing her from actively campaigning in the delegate fight.
“If I had not have been sick — this is my fourth day out of the house — probably the results would have been quite different," she said.
Trump was always poised to struggle to win delegates in South Carolina because the process favors party insiders who typically have rejected his brash, establishment-bashing style.
Early indications in North Carolina and Iowa suggested Trump had been routed in the hunt for another 30-plus delegates there. Cruz won the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, but Trump bested Cruz in North Carolina on March 15. Still, Trump's efforts were essentially futile in both states.
Trump's lone bright spot of the weekend came in Michigan, where Republicans were also selecting delegates on Saturday. With a little help from John Kasich's campaign, Trump's team gave Cruz a dose of his own medicine, leaving the Texas senator shut out of the eight convention committee slots.
Kasich's delegates, whose votes Cruz was counting on, ended up voting for Trump behind closed doors after Cruz attempted to win all eight committee slots. Saul Anuzis, Cruz's Michigan campaign chairman, called it a "double-cross," even going as far as to tweet that the Ohio governor is "now openly auditioning for Donald Trump's Vice President slot."
Of the 59 delegates selected Friday and Saturday in Michigan, 25 spots went to Trump, while Cruz and Kasich each took 17 apiece. But the highly coveted committee assignments, especially on the RNC Rules Committee that could revamp procedures for the nomination battle, are of heightened importance with the increasing likelihood of a contested convention. If Kasich doesn't have any supporters on that committee, his rivals' backers could draft new rules that make it harder for Kasich to compete.
Every state gets two slots on the committee. Kasich backer Judi Schwalbach won the rules slot, and Trump supporter Matt Hall won the other, a rare double defeat for Cruz.
Cruz was also boxed out by Trump and Kasich supporters from any of the other convention committees. Kasich delegate Chuck Yob won a slot on the Convention Credentials Committee, which will rule on challenges to delegates’ eligibility to be seated in Cleveland. And Kasich delegate Yavonne Whitbeck won a spot on the Permanent Organization Committee, which — among other tasks — will elect a chairman to preside over the convention.
On Friday evening, as the scope of Cruz’s victory in Colorado was coming into view, Trump seemed to recognize his plight.
“Isn’t it a shame that the person who will have by far the most delegates and many millions more votes than anyone else, me, still must fight,” he tweeted.
Typical nastycruzer. Reverts to simple Cruzbonics when someone fingers Ted the Unipatsy for what he is. :)
I don’t understand why you are so giddy that millions of voters potentially will have their votes negated & thrown to a candidate they did not vote for or support? I know you hate Trump, but doesn’t it bother you that the political system is rigged like this? Really, it goes against what this country was founded on. Whether it is your candidate or not, you should be bothered.
These have been the rules forever! Trump didn’t figure it out until he heard Cruz had more delegates than him in LA. This is a sign of how he would run a presidency, day late, dollar short, low info.
“....and the scallywags expose themselves for the frauds they are.”
At least Trump represents Truth, Justice and the American Way, right?
I mean, it’s not as though he’s ever cheated on his wife, or been involved in shady business dealings, or donated big money to liberal politicians for favors...right?
His positions on the issues are as solid as bedrock as well, correct? They haven’t changed like the wind over and over have they?
And there’s no way he’d say something like two of the three top responsibilities of federal government are healthcare and education would he? That would mean his so-called conservative values are a sham!
Trump supporters should think long and hard about “fraud”, all right.
Listen up, pretentious, pompous ass. You love to preach negatively about Mr. Donald Trump in your lofty terms as though Mr. Trump is inferior to you which is both laughable and pitiful. I’ll venture a guess that you’re not worth even $1 Billion.
Aside from the fact that RNC Rules are subject to change one week prior to the Convention in Cleveland, your claims that
“Trump knew or at least was charged with knowing the rules from the day he declared his candidacy, (and that) Cruz has played entirely by the rules.” are not altogether true.
Cruz has backdoor-sleazed delegates he didn’t win. He can claim them by the “rules” but the good will he has lost will cost him the election IF he manages to sleaze his way to the nomination, by those “rules” you’re touting.
Free advice for the future: Stop talking down to fellow FReepers!
You had NO reason at all to be rude to Duchess47!
Oops....guess cRuz is disqualified.
Is Ted Cruz a natural-born citizen eligible to serve as president? [Yes! And I support him! JimRob]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3084490/posts
LOL good to know that you changed your position from 2010 in 3 years...2013 instead of right before the primary season...
After all, you had serious money on Teddy.
Thanks for the reminder. Good to keep people honest.
How much “serious money” do I have on Cruz?
Every time I hear(read) someone using that word, I remember this song. It gives one a bit of perspective.
No, the rules have nothing to do with the Constitution.
They have to do with the Republican party, are changed like dirty socks and are put in place to subvert the American voter if the elites do not like what’s happening.
Don’t even try to tell me that the majority of the American voters are a mob.
Spot on, Duchess.
Calling the majority a mob, now, is a new low from the cRuz sycophants.
Thank you for calling out this *utter* arrogance.
Cruz has played entirely by the rules.
Oh, come on!
Thank you. I rarely talk to this man, he is a pretentious, pompous ass. I broke my own rules tonight but will try very hard not to do it again. I should not allow myself to even pay any attention to anything he posts.
:)
I always thought it was that way because the founding fathers knew that we'd pick the worst candidate.
How is your pup?
You’re welcome.
Thanks to his arrogant, (look at me!) logo, I skip right past his posts, but your screen name caught my attention, which prompted my reply.
He does one shift a day, sometimes a double shift cause that time and a half is nice.
Oh no, dear, bless yours. You did not upset me; just surprised me a bit. I’m sorry this election season has left such hatred in your heart. I’m no fan of Trump’s, but I certainly do not hate him. Cruz is not ideal, but I do not hate him, either. Nor do I hold him in some ridiculously high esteem. At the end of the day they are both just candidates, mortal men, neither one deserving of my soul-destroying loathing or my undying admiration. Neither represents the best of humankind, nor the worst. To me, at least.
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