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Washington delegate led #NeverTrump movement
Washington delegate led #NeverTrump movement
By Michael Konopasek, Q13 News
SEATTLE -- Anger brewed within the Republican Party Monday over a failed attempt to dump Trump at the GOP's national convention in Cleveland. The man leading the charge in the #NeverTrump movement is a Washington state delegate named Eric Minor.
Several months ago, Minor was quietly living in Gig Harbor as a software engineer. He wasn't terribly interested in politics until he saw Trump rising in the polls. Now, Minor has gained national attention for his fierce fight against the new leader of his own party.
That fight was made up of a faction of 10 states at the convention working to abandon new 2016 rules. The faction wanted to abandon the rules for a number of reasons-- most notably to allow delegates the choice to vote their conscience. Currently, delegates are bound by election results favoring Donald Trump.
"At the end of the day, the RNC would not take the roll call vote," explained Minor. " delayed and they claimed that they were able to get to resend their names from the petitions . We don't know that or not ... and magically got the number of states down from 10 states to six states. In other words, one below the threshold."
If Minor had his pick, the nominee would be Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. He believes a Trump nomination gives Hillary Clinton a clearer path to the White House.
"The simple fact of the matter is if we had stopped Trump on that first ballot, then it was our expectation that someone else would've thrown their hat into the ring," said Minor.
Trump backers say their party colleagues not falling in line are the problem. They're happy the convention is moving forward as planned. Meanwhile, their so-called rebel counterparts are using Trump's own words against the process-- saying the system is rigged.
" insisted on a sham of a vote where it was just the whole auditorium saying yea or nay, and they just automatically said the yeas have it ... and they just went through this lie."
The attempt to abandon the temporary 2016 rules was the last-ditch effort to prevent Trump from becoming the GOP nominee. Party insiders are signaling some are finally getting behind Trump while others still pledge they never will.
The convention on Tuesday will officially nominate Trump and his running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana.