Citing 'conscience,' GOP's anti-Trump holdouts try pre-nomination pushback
As voters and Republican leaders express aversion to Donald Trump, a group of Republican delegates have devised a last-minute plan to deny him the presidential nomination聽
, a Denver-area schoolteacher and activist who sits on the party鈥檚 rules committee, wants to pass a 鈥渃onscience clause鈥� amendment to party electoral rules, freeing delegates to cast a different vote at the July convention than the one they鈥檇 pledged during primary season, on Friday.
Mr. Unruh, like most of the dozen or so other anti-Trump delegates who make up the group, backed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz during the primaries. To change the rules, they need 56 of the 112 delegates who make up the rules committee to get on board, .
Finding an alternative may pose the most significant hurdle in rallying support. Unruh told the Post that 鈥渘obody has any idea who is going to step in and be the nominee,鈥� calling the plan an 鈥�'Anybody but Trump' movement.鈥�
Some top Republicans have to Trump鈥檚 proposed ban on foreign-born Muslims and verbal聽attacks on district judge Gonzalo Curiel, and in some cases hinted that they could later withdraw their support entirely. One such figure is House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has taken a laissez-faire approach to anti-Trump feelings among the party鈥檚 ranks. In聽to be aired on Sunday, the Wisconsin representative said he would not be 鈥渓eading some chasm in the middle of our party,鈥� but that members of the House Republican conference shouldn鈥檛 support Trump if it鈥檚 鈥渃ontrary to their conscience.鈥�
may have given the anti-Trump cause a lift. Seventy percent of registered voters expressed an unfavorable view of Trump, compared to 55 percent for Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee. And many of these voters were especially emphatic: 56 percent said their views of the presumptive Republican nominee were 鈥渟trongly unfavorable.鈥澛�
Still, even as antipathy toward Trump rises, he has gained ground on Mrs. Clinton in national polls. carried out in the wake of the Orlando attacks found that he had climbed to within 11 points of her. It found that 45.5 percent of voters opted for Clinton, versus 34.8 percent for Trump and 19.7 percent for neither.
From the primary and caucuses, Trump has accrued more than 1,400 delegates 鈥� well over the 1,237 required to seal the GOP nomination. In the past, the party has bound delegates to the vote they cast in their state鈥檚 primary. But the rules committee, , draws up the playbook for the convention just before it takes place, then submits it to the full convention for approval.
In other words, this year's rules aren't yet set.
The RNC鈥檚 chief strategist, Sean Spicer, denying the existence of an 鈥渙rganized effort鈥� to undermine the presumptive nominee, a possibility that Trump has called 鈥渋llegal鈥� and a 鈥渞ebuke to the millions of people who feel strongly about what I am saying.鈥� 聽
