The Republican National Convention in Cleveland is only thirty days away now, and the RNC Chairman is still putting out fires.
…Reince Priebus has been quietly having conversations with state party leaders to discuss the latest push by convention delegates to nominate anyone other than Donald Trump.
Priebus has spoken with GOP party chairmen in multiple states in recent days in part to get a better sense of how large the anti-Trump faction is among their convention delegations, according to two people familiar with the conversations.
While Priebus has made clear in these conversations that he is not spearheading the latest push for a coup, his involvement sends a signal that the RNC is taking this effort to dump Trump seriously even as other movements have fizzled.
So far, the contingent of revolting, plotting delegates only numbers in the low dozens, but it’s big enough that Priebus is trying to get a handle on it.
Given the strife, a growing group of anti-Trump delegates is convinced that enough like-minded Republicans will band together in the next month to change party rules and allow delegates to vote for whomever they want at the convention, regardless of who won state caucuses or primaries.
But, of course, these folks probably aren’t factoring in the goon squad element to Trump’s support.
Second, several delegates are deeply concerned about what they say are intimidation tactics by Trump, his campaign and some state party leaders.
One delegate, who commented on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution, wrote in an email that during his state party’s first convention organizing meeting, party leaders told the delegates that if they didn’t vote for Trump, “we would be removed from the floor and replaced with an alternate.”
This time around, it’s the GOP with a serious PUMA problem.
