National reports have surfaced in recent days that a renewed movement is afoot to deny Donald Trump the Republican nomination. But local GOP activists say they are unaware of such efforts and aren’t putting much stock in the reports.
“I can understand there are some people who would like that to happen,” says Leslie Tassin, a delegate from East Baton Rouge Parish to the Republican National Convention. “I guess that is their last resort. But I don’t see it happening.”
Tassin, one of five Louisiana delegates originally pledged to Marco Rubio and since committed to Trump, says convention delegates from the area met last week for the second time and that no discussion about an anti-Trump movement came up. He says no other delegates from around the country have contacted him on the subject, though he did get an email from a reporter with ABC News asking him if he’d consider switching.
“I don’t know where these rumors are coming from,” Tassin says. “I am not in favor of any movement to deny Trump the nomination. He won it fair and square.”
Reports about the renewed efforts to deny Trump the nomination appeared over the weekend in The Washington Post.
According to reports, an insurgent but organized campaign of at least 30 delegates from 15 states who will attend the GOP convention next month aims to unseat Trump as the party’s presumptive nominee. These delegates were apparently pushed over the edge by Trump’s racist attacks against a Hispanic judge, flagging poll numbers against Hillary Clinton and statements following the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida.
A delegate from Colorado, Kendal Unruh, reportedly is leading the effort, which will seek to amend the Republican Party bylaws at the convention to include a “conscience rule” that would allow bound delegates awarded to Trump through his primary wins to cast ballots for their preferred candidate instead.
The Post reports that the group first met on a conference call last Thursday, and that organizers have recruited regional coordinators in Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Washington and other states.
Tassin says he has not heard of a Louisiana coordinator and has no idea who that might be. Neither does local GOP strategist Lionel Rainey, who was the statewide organizer of the Rubio campaign during the primary season. Like Tassin, Rainey discounts reports of an anti-Trump effort at the campaign.
“I think it’s simply a handful of people who want to stir things up by planting a false narrative,” Rainey says. “Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for President.”
—Stephanie Riegel
