WhatFinger


Until those delegate challenges are settled, there is no 1,237.

RNC official: Delegate counts are 'estimates.' Even if Trump gets to 1237, he may be denied the nomination.



No matter how much the RNC dislikes the idea of Donald Trump as its 2016 nominee, one thing is for certain. If he goes into the convention with the 'magic number' of 1,237 delegates, he'll get the nod. Party officials have been making that proclamation for months. As Reince Priebus says:
“The rules say you have to have 1,237 delegates to be the nominee. We aren’t going to hand the nomination to anyone with a plurality, no matter how close they are to 1,237. You need a majority. Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”
Now it's starting to look like Donald Trump might actually get to that number. Since they're a party hell-bent on self-destruction, they're panicking and searching for new, exciting, ways to deny him the delegates he needs. As one unbound delegate argues, all the delegate counts you've seen so far are "just estimates." ...Oh, and he sits on the convention rules committee too. From Yahoo:
Donald Trump may be the only Republican presidential candidate who can realistically hit the magic 1,237 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 Haugland, a longstanding RNC official and an unbound delegate from North Dakota who will be on the convention rules committee in July, told CNBC that attaining 1,237 during the primaries does not secure the nomination. "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," Haugland said. "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."

Support Canada Free Press


In other words: "your votes are adorable, but don't go thinking they matter more than ours." Haugland expects that the delegates from several states will be challenged in an effort to nominate someone the party feels is more electable. Previous examples of electability include folks like John McCain, Bob Dole, and Mitt Romney.
“Remember every state has a different delegate allocation process,” he said. “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.” Haugland said he expects the delegates won in winner-take-all states to be most likely challenged.
If the Republicans want to absolutely guarantee defeat in November (and I'm well aware that they might) this is how they can do it. If, after months of touting the 1237 number, Donald Trump walks into that convention having met or crossed the delegate threshold and they still find a way to refuse him... They will decimate what's left of their already badly damaged party.


View Comments

Robert Laurie -- Bio and Archives

Robert Laurie’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain.com

Be sure to “like” Robert Laurie over on Facebook and follow him on Twitter. You’ll be glad you did.


Sponsored