Trump's Saturday delegate disaster (South Carolina and Colorado)

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.

The analogy of the Electoral College would be this: if, after the vote takes place in November, in a few weeks the the Electoral College meets, and electors from various states cast their vote for the candidate who did not WIN that state. That's the comparison, if you wish to make it.

Of course, this is covered by the constitution which, presumably, Cruz wouldn't try to subvert the ELECTORAL COLLEGE?

And the RNC---it's a club of Elites, our own Oligarchy, and they can fool the people with impunity. It's THEIR party. What they've done wrong is PRESENTED the primaries as REAL DEMOCRATIC VOTES, which, we're learning, they are not.

My favorite Reagan quote -
To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last - but eat you he will. Ronald Reagan

This is what I see with Trump supporters and their only Trump can save us from the GOPe and make our country great again. They want to put a sign in their yard, wear a Trump hat, call anyone that isn’t Trump and doesn’t support Trump ugly names, and then, wait for Trump to save them.

We know Cruz alone can’t save us. We know he can lead us and we can save ourselves which is exactly what Cruz supporters are doing. We understand the primary process and realize that the candidate that is acceptable to the majority of the Republican Party is going to be our nominee. We understand that it is about delegates and organization and time and work gets the delegates. We might not win in the end, but we refuse to feed the crocodile.

Actually the rules MAY be changed once the convention is in session. There will be a rules committee made up of 112 delegates...two from each state and territory. They will make recommendations to the convention.

The recommendations will be voted on by the delegates. If the combination of Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz delegates decide they can change the rules. Otherwise they will not be changed.

Please don’t tell me the rules are changed like dirty socks...it’s just not true. No one is trying to subvert the voter.

Please don't distort what I said.

The idea of the Constitution is to embody a set of rules just as the Republican party has promulgated a set of rules. We respect the Constitution but we must acknowledge that the effect of many of the rules is to avoid majoritarian rule. That is the whole purpose of the Bill of Rights. It does not matter if the majority of the people are deluded and think that Donald Trump would make a good president and would like to shut up people like me. It does not matter because I have a First Amendment right to speak out even against the wishes of the majority of Trump supporters. Democracy in the minds of the framers was often, but not in every respect, equated with mob rule.

If you believe in playing by the rules, as people who respect the Constitution do, if you understand that Trump accepted these rules governing primaries going into the contest, the whole episode does not reflect badly on Ted Cruz who played by the rules but very badly on Donald Trump who ignored them.

According to Ted himself, HE is not eligible.
“Two citizen parents... on US soil.”

you know this, you read the links to that interview...
not only today but in the past when everyone was going full “donnybrook” about Obama’s ineligibility shenanigans.

I know you have to support your guy and follow your heart. But there are many of us who feel just the exact opposite about the candidates as do you... and even if we are wrong, you must admit, Ted should not have said “Two citizen parents... on US soil,” and then chosen to run KNOWING he did not have the legal documentation or the American soil requirement on lock down.

I think he is done for at this point. But would be happy if after he drops out, you would consider joining the rest of us to Make America Great again.

Have a great evening...

“Most delegates are your neighbors, not so-called party hacks.”

Honest, ethical people would not subvert the votes of the people. If a State votes for Trump, and Cruz Steals the delegates, he is nothing but a thief.

First of all, the electoral college is not involved here. Yes, I understand the Electoral College. However, to my knowledge, after a state votes, there isn’t a process of trying to swing/pay off the electoral college voters from the Republican candidate to the Democrat candidate or visa versa. They vote for the presidential candidate based on how the voters cast their votes. There is no after-the-fact stealing of delegates/electoral college people.

I’m not necessarily talking about Trump vs Cruz. My point is that regardless of what side a person is on, they should be very, very disturbed that voters’ ballots are just disregarded & are no better than sticking them in a shredder after casting them. The system is rigged. If the voters don’t have a say or can be so easily disenfranchised, then we are nothing more than a banana republic. If it can happen this time to Trump voters, then next time it will happen to the candidate who isn’t anointed by the establishment.

Trump can't lose. This delegate business is right in his wheelhouse. He has promised to do better deals than any politician , and is the smartest best dealmaker alive. He promised us that. So therefore, he has this delegate dealmaking under complete control. I trust his wisdom and his word. He said his word is his bond.

How often have we been lectured by Trump supporters telling us what a genius Donald Trump is

He IS a genius.

Now, he's exposed even Ted Cruz as a GOPee insider.

Ted's not man enough to do what's best for the Republican Party, because of his sociopathic need to ascend to power.

At the end of all things, Trump, like Samson, will pull the temple down around the ears of Ted and his feasting GOPee buddies.

And be damned to them. :)

“The analogy of the Electoral College would be this: if, after the vote takes place in November, in a few weeks the the Electoral College meets, and electors from various states cast their vote for the candidate who did not WIN that state. That’s the comparison, if you wish to make it.”

Indeed. It could be something such as the revelation that the candidate was actually a felon, for instance. No elector could vote for him in good conscience.

With Trump, it is the growing realization that he’s just not Presidential material. Nor is he electable, especially given many of his very recent comments. To the small minority that are his followers (about 20% of eligible voters) he’s a great man. The rest of the country is holding its nose.

I will say, it’s an absolutely insane election year. I don’t believe there’s ever been as polarizing of a candidate as Trump.

I’ll say again, if Trump is the nominee, I’ll vote for him. There’s a decent chance he’d be better than whichever Dem, although it’s impossible to say with any certainty.

I only see about five states where the candidates are "unbound"

Logic would tell me that if some are specifically unbound, then the others are "bound." THAT is how it is PRESENTED to those who voted in the primaries.

Please note the "Delegate allocation" column.

“If a State votes for Trump, and Cruz Steals the delegates, he is nothing but a thief.”

The state of Colorado does not have a primary vote. So there were no “winners” to “steal”. The delegates are elected during the convention. It sounds as though the Cruz campaign did a better job at presenting their arguments, platform and vision to get the delegates to vote for their guy.

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