Months after Trump appeared to seal the Republican nomination for President, anti-Trump forces still have one last chance to force a vote on the Party’s Convention floor that would throw open the GOP contest again.
It’s a long shot, but by some counts they are remarkably close to getting past the first hurdle next week in Cleveland.
Mr. Trump’s intra-party foes, led by a group of rogue delegates, are waging an intense behind-the-scenes effort to push the Republican National Convention’s Rules Committee for a vote on freeing delegates to back whom they wish, rather than being bound to Mr. Trump.
The presumptive nominee’s team is fighting back just as vehemently, with an organized campaign of dozens of aides and volunteers. It’s a power struggle that has prompted threats of reprisals and left many Republicans anxious that it could hurt the Party’s prospects in November.
The anti-Trump camp needs the backing of 28, or one-quarter, of the 112 Convention Rules Committee members, in order to place the issue before the full convention. A Wall Street Journal survey suggests it could be close.
All involved in counting votes say those numbers fluctuate on a day-to-day basis. If the provision gets the necessary committee votes when the panel meets beginning next Wednesday, it would place the issue before the full convention, where it would need 1,237 votes, half the delegates, to pass.
Though a majority of the convention delegates are bound to support Mr. Trump, a recent count shows just about 890 delegates are personally loyal to Trump.
Another 680 oppose him.
That leaves 900 delegates who are presumed to be “in play,”. The Stop-Trump forces would have to take nearly two-thirds of them to block his nomination.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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