A similar thing happened in the 1986 Alabama governor’s election. One of the Democrat primary candidates solicited GOP crossover votes in the runoff election. The Rats threw out the runoff results and proclaimed their choice to be the Rat nominee for the general election.
A guy who was a nobody up until that time won the GOP primary and proceeded to trounce the Rat nominee. His name was Guy Hunt. I went to HS with his daughter. Then, after Hunt was re-elected, the Rats brought some charges on campaign finance (practices that ALL the Rats got away with) that got Hunt convicted and thrown out of office.
Their victory party was short-lived because I don’t think there has been a Rat governor since. People notice this kind of crap. If the GOP does this to Trump, they might as well hand pick him as their nominee. It will also be the last bullet in the head of the GOP as we know it today. Rank & file voters who have tended to vote GOP, like me, will avoid them like poison. In excluding Trump,it will prove the Tea Party’s “bait & switch” and “stacking the deck” allegations. The party will not survive that and remain viable. The main reason Trump is getting traction is that he has heard main street Americans and given them a voice; the GOPe will be trying to take that voice away . . . and the people will be angrier than ever if it happens.
Singelmann (sp.?), but he went or is still in prison.