Given a Chance, 2 Michigan Delegates Would Vote to Dump Trump

Two delegates from Michigan have joined the movement to replace presumptive nominee Donald Trump as the party’s standard bearer at next month’s convention in Cleveland.

Wendy Day, of Howell, and Barbara Bookout, of Grand Rapids, back a change in party rules by invoking what is called a “conscious clause” that would unfetter bound delegates, allowing them to vote for an alternative candidate on the first ballot at the Republican National Convention, to be held July 18-21 in Cleveland.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has a double-digit lead over Trump, 49 percent to 37 percent, according to a new Bloomberg Politics poll by respected pollster Ann Selzer.

The poll, which has a 4.9 percent margin of error, was taken June 10-13, with more questions added about terrorism, guns and Muslims after the massacre at the Orlando nightclub early Sunday by a gunman who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

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The poll reflects what is a growing frustration among Republican activists after Trump ignored Republican National Committee leaders’ advice to simply extend his condolences to the families of the 49 people who were killed and 53 injured in the carnage. Instead, the New York real estate mogul renewed with vigor his call for a ban on Muslims entering the country, which Republicans say increases the chances of a convention coup attempt.

Losing the presidential race to Clinton isn’t Bookout’s only worry. A loss at the top of the ticket could cost down-ticket Republicans their races as well, she told The Detroit News.

“I don’t think that Mr. Trump represents the Republican values as stated in our current platform,” Bookout said. “I don’t think he understands the task that lies in front of him,” she said. “And I don’t think he’s going to win.”

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Day, who ran Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s Michigan campaign, said she isn’t necessarily trying to position the conservative Christian candidate as the nominee, but said Trump is “destroying the party” and is “a very bad example of what it means to be a Republican.”

Invoking the “conscious clause” won’t be easy. A majority of the 112 members on the Rules Committee would have to approve it before it even went before the 2,472 convention delegates, who would need to vote for it. And it would have to win the approval of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Speaker Paul Ryan, both of whom have endorsed Trump, however tepidly.

In an interview with “Meet the Press” that will air Sunday, Ryan said he has endorsed Trump, but other Republicans will have to vote their conscience.

“The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do something that’s contrary to their conscience,” Ryan said.
“I get that this, this is a very strange situation,” Ryan said. “He’s a very unique nominee.”

The “never Trump” camp, including the group Delegates Unbound, plan to appeal directly to delegates and raise money for television ads in an attempt to harness significant anti-Trump sentiment among delegates, a source working with the group told CNN.

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, conservatives Eric O'Keefe and David Rifkin Jr., both part of the Delegates Unbound movement, advocated invoking the conscience charge.

“These statutes can't be legally enforced,” they wrote. “When Republican delegates arrive in Cleveland to select their party's nominee, they should recognize that they are bound only by their consciences.”

Dana Waters, a founder of the Delegates Unbound movement and a political strategist from Florida, told The Detroit News activists have mounted “a very, very serious effort” to replace Trump at the top of the ticket.

“At the convention, we believe the delegates should be able to vote their conscience and not be restricted by some theoretical rule that doesn’t actually exist.”

However, the conversation may be coming too too late, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, told CNN.

“If poll numbers just continue to go south, you'll have, you know, more people saying, ‘Hey is it too late to make a change?’ ” he said. “I don't think that's gonna happen. It's just too late in the process and obviously there are a lot of dedicated supporters out there that would object.”

Greg McNeilly, a Republican strategist from Grand Rapids, called the unprecedented effort to replace a candidate who won the majority of primaries and caucuses “quixotic.”

“Unless there’s a grand scheme, which there’s not, they wouldn’t be able to pull it off,” McNeilly told The Detroit News.

Image credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr / licensed under Creative Commons