Taking 'Dump Trump' to the Convention

With the Republican party nominating convention in Cleveland right around the bend, Donald Trump’s support among delegates still isn’t in the bag. Although that seems like bad news – both for the candidate and for the party – what happens between now and the floor vote could end up bringing the drama over the Donald to a decent conclusion.

To be sure, Trump’s opponents are busy nibbling away at his support from the edges as well as from the center of the party. A handful of Republicans, for instance, are pushing delegates to dump Trump over just one issue – his tax returns. In a letter, party activists in Vermont and Virginia called on the conventioneers to exercise “due diligence” and set “an acceptable standard for future elections.”

And then, surprise surprise, there’s a federal lawsuit. Virginia Republican delegate Beau Correll filed a First Amendment challenge to Virginia law, which requires state delegates to vote “for the candidate receiving the most votes in the primary.”

But another group is aiming right for the heart of Trump’s claim to inevitability. Free the Delegates, an independent Republican group, claims about 400 delegates are prepared to jump ship the minute they’re allowed to vote their conscience. The group believes it has a green light from the party leadership, or what’s left of it; on “Meet the Press,” Speaker Paul Ryan said, “it is not my job to tell delegates what to do, what not to do, or to weigh in on things like that. They write the rules. They make their decisions.” It all comes down to a planned vote on “unbinding” the delegates.

Read the rest of this op-ed HERE.

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