An RNC official you’ve probably never heard of is very concerned that new rules committee chairwoman, a Romney supporter, might lead the way in unbinding delegates from Trump on the first vote at the convention:
WASHINGTON EXAMINER – A top Republican official claimed Wednesday that a handful of his fellow party leaders might be sympathetic to a delegate-led effort to deny Donald Trump the nomination at the party’s national convention next month.
Republican National Committeeman Bruce Ash expressed concern in a three-page letter to other RNC members that the party’s newly-appointed rules committee chairwoman could support a “conscience vote” to unbind all 2,472 delegates at the GOP convention. Such a move, he claimed, would be “catastrophic” for the party.
Ash specifically accused Enid Mickelsen, who will head the convention’s rules committee, and Ron Kaufman of aiding the effort to the force a conscience vote in order to free bound delegates from supporting Trump on the first ballot. Mickelson and Kaufman are alumni of Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.
“I have enormous respect for Mitt Romney, however, in view of his support of the NeverTrump movement I questioned how it looked that two of the leaders in the 2012 Romney campaign were running convention rules…” Ash wrote, adding that he finds it “quite remarkable that the RNC might actually be leaning toward a vote” to unbind delegates.
A majority of the 112-member rules committee would have to vote in favor of installing a conscience clause before all of the GOP delegates would have the opportunity to voice their say. Even then, the measure would have to then gain approval from a majority of the 2,472 national convention delegates.
Ash’s point is that we should all get behind Trump or else we will lose in November. But the fact that he wrote the letter in the first place suggests that they are worried this could actually happen.