Posted on 04/11/2016 6:27:26 AM PDT by FR_addict
This Saturday was the district conventions for many of the NC districts. The keynote speaker was Dr. Ada Fisher, a very impressive speaker and I recommend her short book “I am a Republican” which gives the history of NC African American Republicans. She also said it was her opinion that candidates for President should be born in America.
I wasn’t sure how the process worked, but submitted myself as a delegate candidate. I wasn’t sure if anyone would second my nomination. All the GOP delegates in my county were Cruz supporters.
Someone outside my district seconded me. Each of us gave a short speech as to why we should be a delegate and who we supported.
Here are my tallies. I think he said we had 118 district delegates. Of those, 24 were submitted as district delegates to represent NC districts at the GOP convention.
6 would be chosen from the 24 to represent the district.
We were each given two minutes to speak and we were to state who we supported. I counted 8 Trump supporters from the group. 3 Kasich, 2 Rubios. The rest Cruz supporters.
The 118 delegates present could vote for 6 out of the 24.
When the votes were tallied, all the delegates selected were Cruz supporters.
Of the 6 selected, the delegate in first place had 51 votes, I think they said the last selected delegate of the six chosen had 30.
Assuming that Cruz supporters voted for Cruz, and Trump supporters voted for Trump supporters, there were probably less than 30 Trump supporters at the District convention out of the 118 attending. This is a reasonable assertion, because some of the people, who voted for me, showed me their ballots and they were almost identical to mine. Also, we had fewer Trump supporters on the list of delegates.
Also even before the delegate names were put into nomination, I noticed the guy next to me had a list of the people he planned to vote for. So the Cruz people were organized before the convention as to who would be supporting Cruz on the ballot.
The Trump campaign needs to help Trump supporters organize for the state and national convention. This is a big expense for most of us and help to find rooms with good rates and close to the convention sites would be extremely helpful. A list of Trump supporters for the coming state convention would also be handy.
Some of the Cruz people said they planned to vote for Cruz only. That’s the difference between Cruz and Trump people. I couldn’t vote for Cruz, but then if Cruz had won the state, I wouldn’t sign up to be a delegate to take someone else’s place, who could vote for either Cruz or Trump. I wouldn’t be stacking the deck. If for no other reason, it is expensive to be a delegate and I wanted to do it for my candidate, but not for someone I don’t support.
The attitude of some of the Cruz supporters is to steal the election from the people, who stood in lines for hours to vote. I was an election official this year and saw the turn out for myself. I reported to the polls before 6am and didn't leave until almost 11pm. The state also had a huge turn-out for early voting. The people wanted to vote for their candidate and not have their votes nullified by the party elites.
An attitude perfectly aligned with the GOPe.
Once I was a delegate at the state level but never at the National level because of the expense. My point, many misinformed Freepers think the GOPe is going to place a Romney or Ryan on the ticket. That won't happen because delegates are there own people and will not go through time and EXPENSE to have party bosses tell them what to do.
Good report. Thanks for your observations and good analysis
Question, do you think that these people will violate the law and vote for Cruz?
If you become unbound will you still vote for Trump even though you are a Cruz guy?
Some of the Cruz people said they planned to vote for Cruz only. That’s the difference between Cruz and Trump people. I couldn’t vote for Cruz, but then if Cruz had won the state, I wouldn’t sign up to be a delegate to take someone else’s place, who could vote for either Cruz or Trump. I wouldn’t be stacking the deck.
And Trumpers are the cultists? LOL.
I think what is happening here is Cruz has done a good job recruiting the fake grassroots voters. The GOP party hobbyists who attend party functions. It’s natural that the real grassroots anti-establishment Trump voters are less interested in GOP party machinery.
I hope you're right, but what if the party bosses are seeing to it that the national delegate pool are populated with a sizable portion of their people? And as far as expense is concerned, I would guess that wouldn't be a problem (wink wink) - rules be damned in this corrupt age.
Thank you for reporting honestly about how Trump is not organizing any effort on these delegate selection matters. That Cruz has matters organized and Trump does not is not evidence of cheating or stealing.
I was wondering if the rule could be changed if you front loaded enough anti-Trump delegates. And what would really happen if you violated your pledge to support the candidate on the first round.
The GOP elites have made it clear they have no intention of backing Trump. I believe they would rather lose to Hillary than back Trump and lose their power.
You do realize that if there is no majority winner on the first ballot, that the delegates keep voting until there is a winner?
And that in this case some of the delegates will have to change votes, or else they will have ballots until infinity?
Thank you for participating in the process and letting us know how it went. I have been a poll watcher and a delegate to the Texas GOP convention. It takes more effort than just showing up to vote on election day, but the experience is very rewarding and better informs as to how the system works.
Agreed. Based on the FRaddict’s report, Trump’s organization did not have enough people present to FILL his entitled delegates.
A good part of winning is showing up. Trump's support may be wide, but it's not very deep. The man himself couldn't be bothered to organize any effort to identify possible delegates and communicate with other Trump supporters. And Trump supporters (outside of the poster of this thread) couldn't be bothered to try to become delegates.
What exactly makes Cruz supporters who did those things "fake"?
From what I understand via the Willie Cunningham Show last night, it is the Party bosses in the particular state that decides who the delegate will vote for.
My vote in March will not count.
He’s not entitled to delegates, he is entitled (by way of the primary results) to first ballot votes by a certain number of delegates.
Actually deciding who those delegates are is by the process described in the original post. You have to show up, get nominated as a delegate and then get voted on by the people who do bother to show up.
Your vote determines how the delegates vote on the first ballot. If someone has a majority of votes on the first ballot, then it’s over.
I'm not a fan of Trump, but I still want to thank you for getting involved and going to your district meeting. It should serve as a reminder for a lot of people that if you want to change the direction of the party, you have to get more involved than just showing up at primaries. You have to at least become familiar with who your local party representatives are so you can vote for them in the primary.
When I voted in my state's primary, there were various "Republican Party Committeemen" on the ballot. I had no idea who any of them were, or what they even did. Can't remember if I even voted for one. And I know nothing about the delegates who represent my party district (if that's what it is called) in Ohio.
Reagan was successful in large part because his failed 1976 candidacy led a lot more conservatives to get involved in local government and party business for 1980. He still wasn't the "establishment" choice in 1980, but it did mean that he had an organization and cadre of support to not only get elected, but to create future conservative candidates for office to continue his revolution.
So again, thanks for caring enough to do what so many of the rest of us don't. That's my fault.
Exactly right. But conspiracy theorists love to have the entire world aligned against them, so this may fall on deaf ears.
There was no overt stealing at the convention. The rules were being followed, but the attitude was clear. When some one gets up and says they will not ever support Trump, we have a problem in the party. Although they did add two more voting district delegates at the last minute. Not sure why, but I figured it wouldn’t matter that much with 118 delegates already present.
I also got a call before the convention by a Cruz supporter and he asked who I supported. That was an easy one. I told him I supported the nominee. He didn’t want to take that as an answer. I told him I supported who the people elected. He said but the delegates haven’t voted and that’s what counts.
I have been naive about the voting process and have a very bad taste in my mouth.
It was said at the convention that you couldn’t campaign for help in expenses, but I wonder if there is some vote buying going on within the party. I was naive how this part of the process worked.
I’m still learning how the system works, and I never realized how powerful the backroom deals are. We think our vote counts, but is it just for show?
Might this be an unintended consequence of having a self funding candidate? Cruz folks have been supporting Ted with lots of small personal donations. Although Trump has quietly accepted the same his campaign has mostly been run, as claimed, on Trump's dollars and on his talent for gathering free media coverage. So many Trump voters have hopped on a free ride for the Trump party. And now they want Trump to fund their participation in the process. Like Bernie's free college snowflakes. Would that even be legal, I don't know? Now this certainly doesn't apply to all Trump voters, but it appears to apply to enough of them to be causing problems.
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