Posted on 04/02/2016 9:29:56 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
FARGO – An already unconventional election season is bringing an unusual phenomenon to North Dakota politics: significant national attention.
Correspondents from national media outlets such as CNN and the Washington Post arrived in Fargo for the state Republican convention this weekend, where the three presidential campaigns are making a push for delegates friendly to their candidates to be sent to Cleveland for the national convention in July.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz made the biggest splash Saturday by delivering the keynote address that afternoon. Carly Fiorina, a former presidential candidate who supports Cruz, mingled with convention attendees Friday night at the Ramada hotel before introducing the senator to the Scheels Arena crowd on Saturday.
Ben Carson, a former presidential candidate and Donald Trump supporter, will speak Sunday, April 3, as will former New Hampshire Sen. Gordon Humphrey, who is here in support of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, another Republican presidential candidate.
So why all of the attention for North Dakota?
While Trump has outpaced his opponents in Republican presidential primaries and caucuses thus far, it remains possible he will arrive at the party's national convention without the support of a majority of delegates. And the fact that North Dakota delegates aren't bound to vote according to the results of a state primary or caucus gives presidential campaigns an opportunity this weekend to garner support from those being sent to Cleveland.
"Twenty-eight unbound delegates is like a pot of gold in this strange year," Humphrey said. "So we're out here prospecting."
Politicking
The process to select North Dakota's national delegates began Friday, where the party's Permanent Committee on Organization met to discuss the 100-plus applicants for 25 spots. North Dakota Republicans will ultimately send 28 delegates to the national convention, three of which are already reserved for two national committee members and the state party chairman.
The makeup of the 25 delegate nominees was selected with a formula, with the heaviest consideration given to history of work with the Republican Party. Other criteria include monetary contributions to the party, a history of statewide, federal or legislative candidacy, as well as never having attended a national convention.
"The process is designed to reward faithful Republican activists, to broaden the party base and to represent the North Dakota Republican Party at the national convention," the party's website stated.
Nominations were also made from the convention floor Saturday afternoon, and the final slate will be determined Sunday with a vote. Seventy-four national delegate nominees will be up for consideration, North Dakota Republican Party Executive Director Roz Leighton said.
The politicking will really begin once delegates are on the ballot, District 45 Republican chairman John Trandem predicted Saturday morning.
"What they're going to do is go down that list of names and try to find those people and talk to them," Trandem said. "They may print off cards or sample ballots and say, 'Vote for these 25, they're Trump supporters or Cruz supporters.'"
The Kasich campaign was waiting for the release of the delegates' names Saturday, after which campaign members will introduce themselves to identify supporters and build relationships over the coming days and weeks, Humphrey said.
"The bottom line is to compile the biggest list of Kasich delegates as we can," he said Saturday morning.
In his Saturday speech on the Scheels Arena floor, Cruz said "it is entirely possible the men and women that are here will decide this ... nomination."
"I'm here asking for you to stand with us to elect delegates who are supporting me," he said.
Strong ground game
Gary Emineth, a former state party chairman, said the Cruz campaign has been well-organized in Fargo.
"Trump tweets, gets on the air and wins public opinion ... but the ground game is here," he said. "This ground game is what's going to determine probably 100 to 200 delegates. And Trump has been slow to that game."
Asked what his strategy is in Fargo, Carson said, "Telling the truth."
"I'm talking about the key issues that are affecting our country right now," he added.
But regardless of who the delegates end up being or who they support, it's unclear how much of an effect they'll have on the nomination.
"It all depends on how the rest of the primaries go," Trandem said.
If a candidate is able to claim 1,237 delegates before the national convention, Trandem said, North Dakota could be irrelevant.
"But if no one reaches that threshold, they'll be literally key," he added.
Trump leads the field with 763 delegates compared with Cruz's 463. Kasich claims 143, according to Politico.
Curly Haugland, a Republican national committee member for North Dakota, said the delegate counts promoted by national media are "estimates at best" because of various rules and variables that could shape the actual delegate counts in Cleveland. Still, this is the first time in his five conventions that North Dakota's delegates mattered this much.
"Because in every previous convention, the nominee has been chosen before we even got to the convention," Haugland said.
In the case of 2012, North Dakota Republicans voted in favor Rick Santorum that March, but he left the race before the national convention.
Caucus or primary?
North Dakota Republican Party Chairman Kelly Armstrong said a change in national party rules gave state officials like himself, who was elected to his post in June, little time to adjust in order to hold a caucus this election cycle. The Republican National Committee required that states holding those votes bind delegates according to primary or caucus results, he said, and the state party would have had to make changes by Oct. 1.
"We determined, that to make sure our delegates are seated at the national convention in Cleveland, we were going to leave our state party rules the same as they've always been," Armstrong said. "And that necessitated us not having a caucus or primary."
State Republicans will address that issue after the election cycle, Armstrong said.
Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said he would like to have seen the process at least include a caucus in the future. He organized a North Dakota straw poll in which Trump came out on top with more than 37 percent of the vote.
Cramer said it's "great" that national candidates are paying attention to North Dakota, but he wishes they were coming here for a caucus "that involves 100,000, or 50,000 or 20,000 North Dakotans rather than 2,000."
Curly Haugland, huh.....oh, yeah. He’s the RNC tool that said....
Curly Haugland of the Republican National Committeeman for North Dakota said in a letter sent out on March 11 delegates may “vote according to their personal choice in all matters to come before the Republican National Convention, including the vote to nominate the Republican Candidate for President” and disregard voters.
Haugland dismisses primaries as “nearly worthless ‘beauty contests’” and believes delegates “have been bound only once in the history of the Republican Party.”
Fargo!!!
Good TV.
Good politics.
So Ted is the only one speaking? And poor ole Ben is speaking for Trump.
Looks like Colorado isn't the only state where the voters are irrelevant.
As the self-described world’s best businessman and deal negotiator, it should be no problem for Trump to swoop in and business his way to most of the delegates. #Winning!
Weimaraners and Labs agree with Standard Poodles. Good!
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