RNC HQ: All Hands On Deck
After the fallout from Marco Rubio ending his campaign, the Republican National Committee and Reince Priebus have been revving up their efforts to block Donald Trump from becoming the GOP nominee. From the beginning of his campaign, the RNC has not been fond of the mogul, but now that he is closer than ever to the White House, the GOP is shaking in their boots.
Republicans fear that Trump will not be able to hold up to likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton when November 2016 rolls around – it is altogether possible that lifelong Republican voters would either give their support to Clinton in order to prevent POTUS Trump or avoid the election altogether by not casting a ballot. Either situation would prove detrimental to the GOP and would essentially hand the election to another Democrat in the White House.
As a result, top Republican leaders have been hatching a plan to prevent Donald Trump from becoming the RNC nominee. Influential Republicans such as Mitt Romney, Glenn Beck, and Rick Perry are lending their support to Senator Ted Cruz in order to prevent Trump from reaching the 1,237 delegate threshold required to become the Republican nominee for President. Were this to occur, GOP party officials can nominate any candidate of their choosing as the nominee – take a look at this article in which Mitt Romney argues this as the only possible solution to deterring Trump’s momentum.
Despite the moderate side of his party’s dislike of Trump, Reince Priebus and other RNC officials have stated that they would support a Trump nomination. To me this seems like it could prove extremely problematic – they will actively campaign against Trump and everything he stands for up until July 21st and will have to do a 180 degree turnaround on every derogatory thing they’ve said about him on July 22nd. This doesn’t bode well for party unity.
On top of everything, Trump stated on 16 March that were the GOP to hold a brokered convention/open convention, “I think you’d have riots” and claims that these riots “aren’t necessarily a bad thing”. As a result, everyone in the American conservative movement is hunkering down to prepare for this potential ideological and physical battle to the White House.
With 232 days until the election,
Phoebe Warren