Art Of Delegate Deal Eludes Trump

Process all-important if nomination isn’t decided on first vote

Mitch McConnell squared off against Donald Trump for control of the Kentucky delegation that will help pick the Republican presidential nominee, and McConnell won.

The Senate majority leader heads the slate of 25 party leaders picked by the Kentucky GOP at its state convention Saturday, even though Trump’s campaign won the March 5 caucus.

It’s was similar story at other GOP state conventions over the weekend, as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz continued to outmaneuver Trump in the all-important delegate selection process that could decide the GOP nominee if the convention is deadlocked on the first ballot.

In Maine, Cruz loyalists se- cured 19 of the 20 delegates — even though Cruz won only 46% of the vote in the March 5 caucus. And in Utah, where Cruz won 70% of the March 22 caucus vote, Cruz was already guaranteed the support of the 30 delegates on the first ballot.

Trump is still leading the delegate count, with 844 bound delegates to Cruz’s 559. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has 148 delegates.

“The only vote that matters is the vote that’s cast when the roll call is called,” Trump convention manager Paul Manafort told Fox News Sunday. “We are running the campaign to win the votes on the first ballot and ...we’re going to win on the first ballot.”

But unless Trump can come to the convention in Cleveland with the support of 1,237 delegates in hand, the nomination battle could go to a second ballot. And at that point, most delegates become unbound — which makes the selection process in places like Kentucky so important.

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