Donald Trump swept the five Republican primary contests, as his GOP rivals scrambled to stop him from securing the party’s presidential nomination.
The results will make it tougher for Trump’s competitors to limit his delegates and prevent him from winning the nomination outright, though Trump still may not reach the needed 1,237 before the party’s convention in July.
Trump may be the only Republican presidential candidate who can realistically hit the magic number for the majority of delegates, but according to a senior Republican National Committee official that does not mean he will become the GOP presidential nominee.
Curly Haughland, a longstanding RNC official and an unbound delegate from North Dakota who will be on the convention rules committee in July, noted that attaining 1,237 delegates during the primaries does not secure the nomination by saying this:
“Even if Trump reaches the magic number of 1,237 the media and RNC are touting, that does not mean Trump is automatically the nominee, the votes earned during the primary process are only estimates and are not legal convention votes. The only official votes to nominate a candidate are those that are cast from the convention floor.That’s because the eligibility of some delegates in how they are voted in could be questioned and their status may not be considered valid. Delegates are picked up in state contests that can be winner take all, open primaries, and remember there are seven states that allow the candidates to pick their own delegates. Until those delegate challenges are settled, there is no 1,237.” he said.
Hitting 1,237 in the primaries does not mean the candidate would automatically become the GOP presidential nominee. RNC spokesperson Lindsay Walters said.
“You become the presumptive nominee when you get 1,237 bound delegates, you officially become nominee when you have 1,237 votes on the floor of the convention.” (Watch video.)
Among Republican voters in the primaries, 69 percent said the candidate with the most votes, which would likely be Trump, should win in a contested convention.
Video via youtube
Ninety-one percent of Trump supporters said the candidate with the most votes should win. As could be expected, only 41 percent of non-Trump supporters agreed.
The GOP has created this situation by allowing members of their party to use explosive rhetoric on everything from President Obama being a Muslim to Isis to Planned Parenthood selling body parts.
They have used fear and hatred to help them win the Senate and House of Representatives but they can’t understand why Trump is on the verge of becoming the Republican nominee.
He is simply “telling it like it is” as his supporters believe and to try and rig the process against him will only make matters worse for them – but good for America.
Featured image via Flickr-DonkeyHotey available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license
